West Virginia Cop Fired for Not Shooting Suicidal Black Man

The prominence of black people being shot by cops rose in the last few years. From the unfortunate situations involving Eric Garner to Michael Brown, cops have appeared to shoot or attack first and ask questions later. Now, one police officer in West Virginia had the chance to shoot a suicidal black man who was holding an unloaded gun. However, the officer did not. That is not a bad thing by far, but officer Stephen Mader was fired not shooting the man.

The 23-year-old suicidal man, Ronald Williams Jr was talked down from harming himself due to Mader using his "calm voice" that he learned in Marine training. According to Mader, he told Williams, "Put down the gun,' and he’s like, 'Just shoot me.' And I told him, 'I’m not going to shoot you brother.'" From there, the police officer realized it was a suicide attempt and was able to start talking down the suicidal man.

According to police reports, Mader was on the path to de-escalating the situation when two other police officers showed up on the scene. Once the officers arrived, the man began waving the unloaded gun, which caused one of the police officers to shoot him in the back of the head, killing him. A judge went on to rule that the police were justified in shooting the man, and Mader was fired soon after the incident took place. According to the Post-Gazette, Mader's termination letter said he "failed to eliminate a threat" by not shooting the man.

Source: complex.com