A Michigan
prosecutor recently
concluded that Crawford County Sheriff’s Deputy John Klepadlo
was justified in using deadly force to stop a man who lunged at him
with a knife. Although a state police investigator wanted to charge
Klepadlo in connection with the February 3 shooting in Grayling,
Roscommon County Prosecutor Mark Jernigan, whom the Michigan
Attorney General’s Office asked to review the case,
said Klepadlo responded appropriately to a potentially lethal
threat:

The deceased was in possession of an edged weapon. The deceased
pulled a knife and hid it behind his back. At the point where he
pulls his hand forward and lunges at the officer, he is in such
close proximity, and presents a clear danger of deadly force, the
officer is left with no option other than to use deadly force to
protect himself, the other officer and the three civilians that
were present. The use of deadly force is completely justified, and
therefore the homicide was justified.

Sounds reasonable, until you learn the circumstances of the
shooting, which make it seem not quite so justified. “The
deceased,” William Reddie, drew the weapon, a four-inch
pocketknife, because Klepadlo had come to his apartment, along with
a city police officer and two employees of Children’s
Protective Services, to “remove” his 3-year-old son, Cameron. The
Petoskey News
explains why:

Lead [Michigan State Police] investigator Detective Sgt. Rick
Sekely said events leading up to the shooting and attempts to
remove the son from the residence began earlier in the day when
officers went to Reddie’s apartment in response to a possible
domestic disturbance.

Upon arriving at the scene and making contact with Reddie,
officers indicated Reddie was on the phone in what seemed to be a
heated argument with a woman. Reports indicate Reddie appeared
agitated, and when officers stated they could smell the odor of
marijuana in the apartment, Sekely said Reddie admitted to having
smoked marijuana that morning. While at the residence, officers
indicated they observed a minor child at the apartment. 

Sekely said officers, following protocol, contacted protective
services to report Reddie had been smoking marijuana in the
presence of his son.

Child services workers then went to the apartment, and Sekely
said they confronted Reddie about consuming marijuana in the home
and asked him to take a drug test. Sekely said workers indicated
Reddie was agitated, and they felt uncomfortable while at the
residence.

An emergency court order to remove the child from the care of
Reddie was obtained by Child Protective Services, and they
requested assistance from the sheriff’s department and city
police. 

In short, someone called the cops because Reddie was having a
loud telephone conversation, whereupon the cops discovered that
Reddie was a pot smoker, which automatically triggered the chain of
events that led to his death. Is it a mystery that Reddie “appeared
agitated” when cops burst into his home while he was in the middle
of an argument, that he was again “agitated” when CPS workers
dropped in and threatened to take away his son, or that he was even
more agitated when they came by to follow through on that
threat?

“I was on the phone with my son all day,” Reddie’s mother

told the Crawford County Avalanche, “and that cop
[Alan Somero, who responded to the domestic disturbance report,
contacted CPS, and returned to snatch Cameron] was bullying
him and harassing him so badly.” The paper reports that she was
“baffled” that “authorities attempted to take his son after tests
indicated there was no marijuana or alcohol involved.” (Post-mortem
toxicology likewise found no traces of marijuana or
alcohol—puzzling in light of the claim that Reddie “admitted to
having smoked marijuana that morning.”) She added that when CPS
came for Reddie’s son, “they took the only thing he ever
loved.” 

Needless to say, it is a bad idea to pull a knife on a couple of
cops. But it is also a bad idea to presume that a pot smoker must
be an unfit parent, justifying the legally blessed kidnapping of
his son. I would even venture to say that seeing his father killed
in front of him and then being whisked off to “foster care” was a
worse trauma for Cameron than seeing his father smoke pot.

[via the
Drug War Chronicle]