HOW TO INVESTIGATE A POLICE SHOOTING (Session one)

There are a number of police shoots each day around the United States. In California there are many police shootings that are justified. However, there are also a number of police shootings that are not justified. Every officer involved shooting should be investigated by the police department's Officer Involved Shooting team (OIST)to make a determination as to whether or not the shooting was justified. The officers should be statematized and hopefully video taped immediately after the shooting. The officers should be separated from their partner right after the shooting so the officer interview will not be tainted from collateral talk between the officers. There should be a walk through at the scen and there should be a forensic team at the scene. Since the officers all knew the routine and know that there own force officers will conduct the investigation they have a high confidence level that their shooting will be justified espcially if there are no other sources of information. The police will go to the scene in force and try to lock down all of the witnesses and seize all of the video or other evidence. When WILSON TRIAL GROUP gets involved in an officer involved shooting that has caused death or serious bodily injuries to an individual we try to get out to the shoot scene as soon as possible. We do this because we want to search for witnesses, see what officers are still on scene, canvass the area for video or other sources of film capture and start our oen log of the scene. Each witness identified has to be interviewed (preferably on video) and then extensive background on each witness needs to be conducted. You also have to develope sources at the scen because you will have to return many times. Do your own reenactment with the witnesses and video tape it. Search for additional evidence the police may have missed. Take pictures of every inch of the scene and the location where the police responded from. You should also have a Google View of the area. Each police officer will eventuall have to be interviewed, deposed or statemtized. Each paramedic or other responder will have to be interviewed, statemetized or deposed, and all witnesses will need to be processed the same. Be detailed in your evidence gathering and your scene analysis. The keys to a bad shooting will always be at the scene in the begining of the case. Take measurements, do angle analysis on views and build a mock reenactment scene set for video prductions. The next steps in the police shooting investigation will be covered in Session Two. http://www.wilsontrialgroup.com/video.html