Quote:
Originally Posted by F-Sharp
Did a little more reading of some legitimate sources. Looks like he was indeed picked up for the robbery charge that Thursday and released on $8000 bail. How he managed to get arrested on a second degree felony and released with priors in less than 48 hours is simply baffling to me. "Two bike patrol officers responded to a report of an ATM robbery Thursday at Fifth and Trinity streets. The victim accused Sanders of hitting him and taking cash and his wallet, according to the arrest warrant. Officers found Sanders several blocks away based on a description from the victim, picking a credit card out of a wallet before tossing it into a trash can, the affidavit said.
He was charged with robbery by assault, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He posted $8,000 bail on Friday, court records show, and was released from the Travis County Jail. The bond was assessed by substitute Municipal Court Judge Olga Seelig."
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...12sanders.html
The official DA reports he was sleeping in back seat of a car with two other individuals. When police attempted to wake him, they noticed the gun in his waistline. The story is little muddy from there but two officers including Quinatana wrestled for the weapon for a few seconds stating Sanders was reaching for it. The kid was either seriously asleep and perhaps thought he was being robbed, or a complete moron thinking he was going to shoot at three cops with the single round that was in the chamber. My money would be on the former. I am not familiar enough with police protocol, but it seems to me approaching a parked vehicle with three suspects in it in the middle of the night with no lights on was probably not part of their training.
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/travis_...nders_shooting
Assuming my reading is truthful, I think I am going to have to side with Billy on this one. I think the cops involved did not handle this very well, but this kid was just a shooting waiting to happen. I think I am more perturbed with the judge who let this kid out on such a small bail amount and such little assessment as to what threat he might have posed. |
Wow, and I had just sat down behind my computer to enlighten you on this situation. Well, I'll give you this. You were man enough to admit you were wrong on this one. We ALL agree that the tactics here sucked. No doubt about it. I'm not making excuses, only showing a different side. Just picture this for a quick second. Quintana sees the car they've been looking for that's been involved in several robberies, shots fired etc. He tells his back up officers over the radio that he has the car in sight. He follows them into the complex but intends to drive by (his own words) and wait for his back up. He thinks they may just lay low in the car until he's out of sight (again, his words from the independent report) and by then his back up should be there. Instead, the driver immediately gets out. He's (Quintana) got to make a decision right then and there. Does he stop the driver from walking into an apartment and initiate things right then and there or does he continue to wait for his back up, not approach the car and take the chance on them disappearing into the complex? Again, I stress that I don't agree with some of the tactics that were used, but I certainly understand that he had to make an instantaneous decision at that moment. Later, when time
was on their side, some other decisions were made that are questionable and those probably had more to do with the outcome than the initial stop.
None of that negates what Nathanial Sanders was. You may feel differently but once an 18 or 19 year old goes around committing armed robbery, shooting at people etc, he's no longer "just a kid". He's a dangerous felon. Period. Does he "deserve" to get shot?
I never said that. But if you struggle with a police officer who's trying to take away the gun that's in your pants, well, it's probably NOT going to turn out well.
As far as him being out on bail. Not sure what county you live in but that's par for the course in Travis County. Judge Perkins out of the 331st District Court was notorious for that. It was not unusual for him to have people out on
low bail that had committed numerous separate felonies while waiting to go to trial. He just kept handing out $5,000 bails like they were candy. What's $5,000 to a drug dealer, armed robber etc that has to come up with 10% of that?
I can certainly understand why some here would want liberal judges on the bench. The problem with that though is that you don't get to pick on what kind of cases they're liberal and on which ones they tend to be conservative. If you don't want armed robbers like Sanders running around on the street 2 days after they've been arrested then maybe you should consider that next time voting comes around. Just sayin'
