In March of this year, Winslow Arizona police officer Austin Shipley gunned down a woman armed with a pair of scissors. The death of Loreal Juana Barnell-Tsinigine, a Navajo woman, age 27, brings new questions to the table while highlighting a fundamental problem with American policing.
Shipley was attempting to take Loreal into custody for shoplifting, however, after a brief struggle, she was dead.. The incident was captured on the officer’s body cam.The question on everybody’s mind is: why do police always turn to deadly force, when other options are available?
The Maricopa County Attorney announced this week that after a careful review, the office would not bring criminal charges against Shipley. The investigation found that Ofc. Shipley was in fear for his life when the Loreal Tsinigine threatened him with a pair of scissors.
This case brings to light the fact that American police procedure allows for this type of killing. Police are supposed to be trained to deal with combative subjects who, by their very nature, will resist law enforcement command and control. More often than not, police look for opportunity to use deadly force, as opposed to seeking out solutions through de-escalation.
The family of the deceased is suing the city of Winslow for 10.5 million dollars. The suit alleges that the city was negligent in “hiring, training, retaining, controlling and supervising” Shipley who, as it turns out, has a history of violence toward women. Shipley was disciplined twice in his department for using force and incendiary comments to female subjects, including a fifteen ear old girl. His first suspension arose out of an incident where a mother complained that Shipley had aggressively thrown her daughter on the hood of a police car and used profane language towards her. A second incident also resulted in suspension and six months agency probation. According to reports, Shipley Tasered a teenage girl in the back because “she may have had a weapon.” His claims were debunked by his body camera.
While the rest of the media likes to refer to these rookie killers as “veteran cops,” the truth of the matter is that all of the recent police killings we have seen, the officers involved had four years or less on the job. Shipley had three.
Members of the Navajo Nation also voiced their outrage, as this is perceived as another minority being gunned down by over zealous police.
“Words cannot express how disappointed we are with the outcome of the investigation conducted by the Maricopa County Attorney’s office and the injustice imposed on the family of Loreal Tsinigine,” stated Lorenzo Bates, a member of the Navajo Nation Council. Bates released a press statement that asks very pertinent questions that the media tends to ignore. How does an officer who stands over six feet tall and weighs over 200 pounds, feel threatened by a woman barely 100 pounds? Why did the officer feel the need to fire five shots? The council concluded that the punishment of death did not equally meet the allegations of shoplifting.
Officer Shipley’s training record has been brought to light. It shows that even his training officers felt that he should not be hired by the department. He was cited as for “integrity issues, failing to control suspects, not communicating with other officers, not accurately reporting facts and repeatedly questioning his training officers’ directives.”
The city and the department made the decision to hire Shipley anyway, which ultimately let to this result. In this case, if the city had to admit that the shooting of this woman was wrong, they would also have to admit their own failure in judgment by allowing Shipley to patrol the streets, knowing he was a danger.
The facts surrounding this case meet the legal requirements for a deadly force shooting. The problem is that policy in this case is overshadowed by common sense and a need for rational response to our societal problems. Apologists for police will say that she shouldn’t have threatened the officer, or come at him aggressively with something in her hand, and they are correct. The problem is that police are expected to be the adults in the room and to have the training to solve problems without killing first and justifying it later. This case truly highlights a fundamental problem that we face as a nation living under a police state.
Sources: Ct Post, Yahoo News, Today Media
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