Jury Convicts Reserve Deputy Who Shot Suspect With Gun Instead Of Taser

By Bob Owens

A retired executive who more or less bought his way on to the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Department with generous donations of cash and equipment was convicted yesterday for the shooting death of a restrained and unarmed suspect. The reserve deputy claims that he meant to taser Eric Harris, and instead shot him with a .357 Magnum pistol.

Former Reserve Deputy Robert Bates was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter by a jury Wednesday evening after about three hours of deliberation.

Bates, 74, was charged in the April 2, 2015, shooting death of Eric Harris.

Bates was volunteering as a reserve deputy on a Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office drug task force operation when he shot Harris, the target of a gun-sale sting whom deputies were restraining on the ground after a short foot pursuit when he was shot.

The 74-year-old reserve deputy and retired insurance executive was grossly under-trained, and didn’t have any business playing a law enforcement officer. Then again, quite a few reserve officers in law enforcement agencies across the nation fall into that same category, as the process of awarding people a badge for financial support …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms