XPost: alt.law-enforcement, alt.society.liberalism, sac.politics
XPost: talk.politics.guns

RichA <rander3127@gmail.com> wrote in
news:spb66a$np$5@news.dns-netz.com:

They don't have the strength or intelligence to take a violent male
down. They just don't have it.

Ex San Bernardino deputy speaks out after jury finds her attacker not
guilty

VICTORVILLE, Calif. (KABC) -- A Victorville man accused of attempted
murder and assault with a firearm on a peace officer has been found not
guilty on both charges, despite cell phone video that showed a violent
attack on a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy in 2019.

"Disbelief, I didn't believe it," said Meagan McCarthy, the deputy injured
in the attack. "I think it took a couple hours to actually hit me."

The suspect, Ari Young, suffers from schizophrenia. He was found guilty of negligent discharge of a firearm. But the jury hung on three other
charges: battery against a peace officer, removal of an officer's sidearm
and resisting arrest.

The incident took place on Sept. 4th, 2019 on Cabazon Ct. in Victorville. McCarthy was responding to a 911 call for a domestic disturbance.

"All the information that dispatch relayed to me was a woman was on the
phone saying 'Oh my god, oh my god; get my son out of here,'" said
McCarthy. "As I'm walking up to the front door of that house, I see the
front door open, and out comes the male -- the suspect -- and the woman
who I assume is the reporting party. And she has a knife in her hand and
she's on the phone with dispatch."

"I make it just onto the driveway and he confronts me head on. He's very,
very angry; he's very upset. His fists are clenched. I walk around behind
him, and put his hands at the small of his back. I tell him to relax, it's
OK, ask him what's going on, just to pat him down for weapons and that set
him off and began the assault," she continued.

Video shot by a neighbor through an upstairs window appears to show Young
and McCarthy struggling. As McCarthy falls to the ground, there's a
struggle over her firearm. Young is then able to remove the weapon from McCarthy.

"I turn and I run, and I run for the nearest cover I can find which is a
bush. And I hear a gunshot go off, and I knew he was shooting at me," said McCarthy.

Other deputies arrive moments later, and a deputy-involved shooting
occurred. Young was shot several times and was taken by ambulance to a
local hospital.

"It does look bad when you look at it at first glance," said Young's
defense attorney, Raj Maline. "If you don't ever look at it again or don't study it, certainly it looks like my client is shooting at the deputy."

But Maline said during the trial it was revealed that McCarthy ran toward
a bush that was not in the direction that Young fired the handgun.

"We know exactly where she went, which was due south," said Maline. "And
we know where he fired because there's a bullet hole in the garage which
shows he fired, which was northeast which was in the direction he was
walking, which was completely opposite of where she was."

As for the other charges-battery on a peace officer, removing an officer's firearm and resisting arrest-the jury could not reach a verdict. Maline
said jury instructions required the jury to find that McCarthy had been lawfully performing her duties at the time of the attack, and he argued
that she wasn't acting lawfully.

"You can't detain somebody because you want to do an investigation," said Maline. "The jury instruction that the court read to the jury said if you
want to detain somebody, you have to have a reasonable suspicion that
they're engaged in criminal activity."

The one charge Young was found guilty on was negligent discharge of a
firearm. Because he'd already been behind bars long enough to serve that sentence, he was released.

McCarthy maintains that she was acting lawfully throughout the entire encounter.

"I was called to that house; I see a situation where there's a woman in
such fear for her life that she's armed for a knife; I have every right to believe maybe he has a weapon," said McCarthy. "Maybe he's done something
that she's in fear? I would be derelict in my duty if I didn't
investigate.

"I can only do what I can do; I'm a human being, I tried to do my job to
help this woman and unfortunately the suspect's actions dictated the rest
(of what happened) which we all saw."

The San Bernardino County District Attorney's office said there's a
pretrial hearing set for June 30 on the three charges in which the jury
was unable to determine verdicts.

https://abc7.com/victorville--san-bernardino-county-sheriffs-deputy-found- not-guilty/13352182/

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