Officer Who Rammed Armed Man With Car Details Encounter

Arizona officer Michael Rapiejko believed he had no choice but to go beyond an armed guy walking down a busy company hallway, in accordance with an audio-recording of an interview having a prosecutor after the Feb. 19 episode that went viral this week.
The 3 4-year old policeman in the Marana Police Department, a suburb north of Tucson, told an investigator he'd considered shooting the defendant but that this would place other policemen and bystanders in danger.
The interview was launched to The Associated Press on Friday after a public-records request.
Rapiejko is composed and in-depth as he describes his thinking and activities that day.
He'd rammed his police cruiser into 3 6-year old Mario Valencia, who authorities say had snitched a rifle before threatening to destroy himself and capturing it in-the-air next to another policeman. The meeting was recorded on two dash-cam movies that authorities released to the community this week. The movies went viral and attracted international attention at a period when police actions are under examination.
Rapiejko informed the investigator he'd first instructed dispatchers to inform near-by companies to lockdown. When he discovered that Valencia was refusing to obey police orders and kept strolling toward a company, he determined the situation deserved lethal force.
"I 've two ideas going through my head. I should shoot him to prevent the menace, or I should run him through to prevent the menace," Rapiejko stated.
However he was too much -- about 50 yards a way -- to fire correctly using a pistol, a less-powerful weapon than the usual rifle, which includes an extended range.
"Thus (because of) the possibility for extremely poor collateral harm easily lost that opportunity when it comes to precedence of existence and harmless by-standers, or one of us, I determined that wasn't a choice," he stated. "I wished to halt the menace. That has been the sole thing on my head."
Marana authorities say Rapiejko is a hero for stopping a possibly fatal situation. The Pima County Attorney's Office has declined to file charges against him, declaring there was inadequate evidence to establish Rapiejko had criminal intent when he hit Valencia.
Valencia's attorney called Rapiejko's activities excessive and unjustified.
"In viewing the movie, I do believe it was obvious that it wasn't the right actions and that my customer had not been threatening to anyone with the exception of himself," Michelle Cohen Metzger stated Wednesday.
Policing specialists say Rapiejko's use of his police car to quit Valencia was non-traditional as well as crazy, but warranted due to the risk Valencia presented to policemen among others around him.
Rapiejko, who formerly worked for the Ny and Tucson police departments, h-AS been with Marana since early last year.
He h AS been formerly accused of using excessive force in case that led to a $20,000 resolution from Ny to Luis Colon, a guy who accused Rapiejko of pointing a firearm at him and choking him during a 2005 meeting.
Marana police Sgt. Chris Warren stated that New York Police Department internal issues and a citizen review panel cleared Rapiejko of any wrongful conduct and that Marana authorities knew of the event but did not discover value to it.
Rapiejko was straight back on the power after having a typical three-day administrative leave following the event.

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16.04.2015
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