Daily Mail
Louise Boyle
November 7, 2013
A 19-year-old has been shot dead by police after his father dialed 911 to report his truck stolen in order to teach his son a lesson for driving off to buy cigarettes.
Father James Comstock has been left devastated after a police officer shot and killed his teenage son Tyler.
Ames police say the teenager, from Boone, drove a stolen truck onto the Iowa State University campus on Monday, where student pedestrians dodged it to avoid being run over.
Patrol officer Adam McPherson fired six shots into the truck and the 19-year-old later died from two gunshot wounds.
Father James Comstock told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday: ‘He took off with my truck. I call the police, and they kill him. It was over a damn pack of cigarettes. I wouldn’t buy him none.
‘And I lose my son for that.’
Gary Shepley, Tyler’s step-grandfather, questioned why police didn’t back away from the truck, which belonged to a lawn care company, as suggested by an officer during the chase.
Mr Shepley said: ‘So he didn’t shut the damn truck off, so let’s fire six rounds at him? We’re confused, and we don’t understand.’
The family says the teenager was not armed. They also say he was trying to get his life back on track.
Police reported that during the chase with the teenager, Comstock rammed Officer McPherson’s car.
Once the truck had stopped, the teenager refused to turn it off and revved the engine.
Six shots were fired into the truck by the officer with two shots killing the 19-year-old, according to the medical examiner.
The Comstock family said that the 19-year-old had recently split up with his girlfriend and was trying to get his life together after spending a few days in jail for disorderly conduct.
James Comstock said that his son had been attending community college and always showed aptitude for IT.
An investigation into the incident has been launched.
“But a broader point must also be made: smoking kills. See what happens when you’re a young idiot craving nicotine? You become willing to do impulsive, stupid stuff.”
That’s entirely beside the point. The kid wasn’t having a nicotine fit, he was rumbling with his old man, the way all of us who developed a pair of testicles did when we were teens. Anyway, doing impulsive, stupid things don’t make it OK for a cop to murder you.
Smoking didn’t kill that kid. A fucking cop did, in case you didn’t read the article.
The game-changer was the kid ramming a cop car. In many jurisdictions in the US, deliberately ramming a police vehicle with another vehicle is defined as attempted capital murder.
Everyone involved here was a dumbass: the cops, the father, the kid.
But a broader point must also be made: smoking kills. See what happens when you’re a young idiot craving nicotine? You become willing to do impulsive, stupid stuff.
I forgot to addess this line:
“Everyone involved here was a dumbass: the cops, the father, the kid.”
Maybe so, but only one of them is a murderer : the cop.
It’s tragic that the dad had to lose his son in order to learn just what is likely to happen when you call cops into a family matter.
So, I’m going to play devil’s advocate.
What did the father expect?
Call to report stolen car; start a chase; What did you THINK would happen?
And to “teach him a lesson”?
Father’s an idiot. BEST CASE scenario.
This does not absolve the cops, but it definitely makes it look like there’s no point trying to save Boobus Amoriconus from himself.
Funny how shooting someone in a stuck (rev engine and it goes nowhere?) car isn’t murder for a Pig in a costume.
Standard solution applies.
I agree, the father is a total piece of crap for calling the cops versus doing some PARENTING. American society is full of these sheep that think the government will do a better job than them of raising their kids… much to the victimization of the children.
Father was an idiot for calling the cops, no doubt. That’s a clover for you! They’re not very bright.
This is from the DesMoines Register today.
AMES, IA. — The officer who shot and killed a 19-year-old driver this week after a chase onto Iowa State University’s campus was cleared Thursday of wrongdoing, completing the investigation, officials said.
Ames Police Officer Adam McPherson “acted reasonably under very difficult circumstances and McPherson’s use of deadly force was justified,” wrote Story County Attorney Stephen Holmes in a letter to Ames Police Chief Charles Cychosz.
Captain, such an obvious murder they had to go through the motions. Not a day goes by I don’t wonder what in our society has created these monsters. I know Nixon creating the war on drugs was the first step in this eventuality if that’s what it can be called but I still don’t understand the need to kill unarmed people. I suppose our morals fell that far that fast. If anyone wants to know how fast police dept.’s were changed after Nx created the war on drugs, just go to the LEAP website and read what officers from that era say about going from 6-8 officers in a vice dept. to 70 virtually overnight.
Of course when pigs use force, or even kill you, it’s supposedly “justified”, but when you kill them to protect yourself then all of a sudden it’s “unwarrented” or even a threat. These swine are insane and will always cover their ass.
This is definitely not the country I grew up in. In that country, this would be murder…..which it is…..and the thug will go on to abuse the people who pay his salary and probably murder again. It seems as if once let go for murder it simply encourages it from him and all the rest.