Admittedly, it's a different legal system, but I found this to be ironic considering the number of people who have come to the defense of the police in the case of Ryan Frederick, by making arguments like he's a murderer because he shot through the door.
Attention turned to the office's Emergency Response Team on Dec. 1, 2006, when Cpl. Christopher M. Long mistook the sound of a battering ram for gunfire during a raid.
He fired through a door, killing Strickland, a student at Cape Fear Community College, who was wanted in connection with the robbery of video game equipment. Strickland wasn't armed. Causey said Wednesday that Long mis-evaluated the threat. A grand jury considered the case but chose not to indict.
Mis-evaluated is an understatement. It's a safe assumption that if Strickland had fired on them in a manner similar to the way that Frederick did (didn't hear any sign that they were police, only heard a break-in to his house), that Strickland would have been charged with murder if Long had died.
The reprehensible last straw in this case is the fact that the Sheriff will get to control the scope of the audit of his SWAT/ERT personnel.
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