Lionel Young shot by sheriffs deputies after car chase near Baltimore

By Scotty Reid 34-yr old Lionel Young died in a hail of police bullets just 45 minutes from Baltimore, Maryland on Sunday night. NBC Washington reported that..

“Two Prince George’s County Sheriff’s deputies were involved in a fatal shooting Sunday night in Landover, Maryland. Authorities say the deputies were pursuing the vehicle of a suspect in a domestic violence attack involving a knife about 9 p.m. when the suspect rammed his truck into two deputies’ vehicle. The deputies fired their service weapons, striking the man. He was pronounced dead at the scene in the 900 block of Nalley Road. He has been identified as 34-year-old Lionel Lorenzo Young of Landover.”

But In the television newscast that went out to the public on NBC 4, the reporters state that Mr. Young hit his girlfriend’s vehicle presumably with his vehicle while both were driving on the road. She called 911 and kept driving as instructed by dispatchers and found her way to a strip mall where deputies were setting up a sting after getting a description of his vehicle.  

Reportedly Mr. Young tried and did escape the parking lot where deputies were gave chase for quite some time. Perhaps I am missing something because I’m trying to figure out when the “domestic violence attack involving a knife” occur?

It appears NBC Washington is publishing law enforcement press statements without fact-checking and doing its own fact finding before rushing to publish. Absent more information, it is impossible to classify the alleged incident as a knife attack.

The victim in the alleged domestic violence incident filed for and got a restraining order the same night that Mr. Young was killed by the two sheriff’s deputies. According to NBC 4, the protective order was issued after Mr. Young had been killed by two of Prince George’s County Sheriff’s deputies so it is possible Mr. Young’s alleged girlfriend was unaware he had been killed by police at the time she sought the order.

It appears that Mr. Young was gunned down not because he committed a heinous act like rape or murder and was fleeing the crime scene with blood still fresh on his “knife”. The police spokesperson in the video, a proxy non-white employee of the system, uses standard police language in describing Mr. Young’s vehicle as a weapon which subliminally suggests ramming into police cars that are trying to stop you on the road is tantamount to pointing a gun at the deputies and therefore awarding them judiciary powers.

For the safety of the public, themselves and an emotionally unbalanced Mr. Young, the deputies could have at anytime decided not to engage Mr. Young’s vehicle with their vehicles to force him to stop. The deputies for the safety of the public, themselves and Mr. Young could have followed Mr. Young until he stopped while dispatching a mental health professional in route to talk him down from his emotional ledge.

Deadly force should always be the last resort of public so-called servants and avoided when other measures can be taken to resolve a public disturbance. Mr. Young was not transporting a suitcase nuke and therefore must have been stopped immediately to save millions of lives.

Could the deputies have ended the car chase without shooting Mr. Young? How did they shoot Mr. Young. From inside their vehicles through the windows or did they get out their vehicles to take a shot at Mr. Young. Was there any attempt to shoot out the radiator and the tires to disable the vehicle?

What it appears the deputies did was execute an emotional man having a bad day for running into cars put into his path. Lots of unanswered questions so the next logical question is, where is the dash-cam video? Cue the violins as I’m sure we will be hearing about cop’s right to go home to their families as justification for this killing which is officially still under investigation.