Here is another case of police not taking threats seriously and innocent people dying because they did.
Weeks before the El Paso shooter entered the Walmart parking lot, his mother called the police to notify them that her son had bought an AK-47 and she was afraid of what he might be up to.
She told them that her son was not mature enough to be trusted with that type of gun but if your mother drops a dime on you, it’s serious.
Her lawyer now says that she only called the police to find out if it was legal for her son to own the gun and the police assured her that he was.
Even so, I would have checked him out.
The El Paso shooting suspect’s mother reportedly called police weeks prior to the August 3, 2019, attack that killed 22 people.
CNN reports that the suspect’s mother “called the Allen, Texas, Police Department…because she was concerned about her son owning an ‘AK’ type firearm.” She expressed concern over her son being able to own the firearm, “given his age, maturity level and lack of experience handling such a firearm.”
The mother was told that her son, a 21-year-old, was legally of age to possess the firearm.
Attorney’s for the suspect’s family indicate the mother was not calling to report her son as a danger. Rather, they describe her call as an “informational” one in which she was trying to ascertain what was legal.
Family attorney Chris Ayres said of the shooting suspect, “This was not a volatile, explosive, erratic behaving kid. It’s not like alarm bells were going off.”