Little Rock Police Officer who Fatally Shot 15 yr. Old Black Boy had been Suspended 6 Times in 5 Years
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From [HERE] and [HERE] Six suspensions over five years and a Little Rock police officer is still hanging onto his job. The officer recently made headlines after fatally shooting a 15-year-old Black boy. Patrol officer Josh Hastings is currently on paid leave pending an investigation into that on-the-job shooting in August where he fired at a vehicle with some car-break in suspects inside. As he waits his fate for that incident, we're learning more about a troubled past with the force.
It's a microscope under Officer Hastings, once again. Police Spokeswoman Cassandra Davis says he's received six suspensions during his five years on the job. Davis says that Hastings previous suspensions never included any excessive force. But she says they did include lying to a supervisor about his location on the job, failure to appear in court for a case and patrolling outside of his district to work a call for an outside agency without permission. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette uncovered some more serious complaints, like damaging department property, sleeping on the job and showing a "quote" reckless disregard for public safety. The paper said all six suspensions combined took Hastings off the job for just more than a month.
A Little Rock crime scene August 12 left a mother in disbelief. "Only thing I got to say is whatever my son did, it didn't give the officer the right to shoot my son," Sylvia Perkins said. Her 15-year-old son was killed by a bullet, Little Rock police say, fired by Officer Josh Hastings because he felt threatened.
According to Josh Hastings, he saw two people break into a car then ran to a Honda Civic where another juvenile was waiting in the driver's seat. "According to the officer the vehicle came toward him and he felt threatened and he did fire upon the vehicle striking the juvenile driver." That bullet killed the teen. The two other juveniles in the car ran but Davis says they were caught and charged with one count of breaking and entering of an automobile. Sgt. Davis says there's no word right now on when the review will be done on the August on-the-job shooting.
"It's unfortunate...we have no other choice but to rely on what that officer felt at that time. Each circumstance may be different...He felt that he needed to use that force necessary to stop that car from running him down," said Sgt. Cassandra Davis of the Little Rock Police Department. [MORE]
It is still unclear on how fast the 15 yr. old's car was allegedly driving toward Officer Hastings, and what items might have been stolen from the vehicles at the apartment complex...information pending the police investigation. [MORE]
Davis says the department felt discipline trumped a firing to resolve Hastings previous issues. She says the department offers internal and external training for officer problems on the job. The external help often tackles more personal matters with outside professionals. Inside training includes things like traffic classes for accidents on the job and multi-cultural training for officers struggling to interact with people of other races. Sgt. Davis didn't believe Officer Hastings received any outside help and couldn't tell us for certain during our interview on Monday if there was any inside assistance.
