Georgia police chief calls 911 to report he accidentally shot his wife — twice

a reply to: Bedlam


You mean he went one for two? Give him a desk job!

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Innocent until proven guilty. They don't arrest all the suspects in a criminal case unless necessary.

Bad people run, so they arrest them. Good people who co-operate are not arrested until evidence arises to warrant doing so.

originally posted by: deadcatsrule
just my 2 cents ,with him being a cop,and if he did anything on purposes
why did it take 2 shoots and not get the job done with 1

Training .. its called a doubletap ...

originally posted by: tsurfer2000h
a reply to: DenyObfuscation

Hold on a minute. Before we pass judgement on the Chief, we need to know if the wife was wearing a hoodie.

And eating skittles...

It is possible.

Skittles? Maybe I need to clarify that my hoodie comment was motivated by scanning this thread , not a Trayvon thing.

originally posted by: Bedlam

He only hit her once, the GBI lady said. Maybe he only fired once. On the 911 recording he apparently said he fired twice, as GBI said that after reviewing the physical evidence she was only shot once. That's a bit ambiguous.

Well that clears things up satisfactorily. He did shoot twice 'cos he missed the first time!

a reply to: Bedlam

What breaking of the law? If it's within department policy, IA can just claim it's a righteous shoot in the line of duty. In which case, no laws are broken.

That's going to be up to the GBI to determine.

Here is an update to the story...

Lang said Margaret McCollom, 58, was shot once, correcting earlier reports that she was shot twice. The gunshot was from the the police chief’s service weapon, Lang said. The chief’s weapon is a Glock 17 9 millimeter said Brown.

www.ajc.com...

Hopefully this will clear up some confusion as to how many times she was shot.

a reply to: DenyObfuscation

Skittles? Maybe I need to clarify that my hoodie comment was motivated by scanning this thread , not a Trayvon thing.

A little confusion on my part...sorry for that. My apologies.

I hope his wife survives to clear this mess up. I hope her family has stepped in to protect her and filed a restraining order against Chief Mocollom.

a reply to: tsurfer2000h
No worries. I should have realized it could be taken that way, but I only had that 'Ban the Hoodie' thread in mind at the time.

Yep, about the one minute mark "...as well as an internal review to make sure that policies, procedures and precautions were being taken..."

IIRC, he came out with that again at one point toward the end but the AJC link "raw video" has been snipped up.

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: DenyObfuscation
a reply to: Bedlam

The internal affairs guy twice said they were reviewing the incident to verify that the shoot adhered to department policy on use of force.

Why would they have a policy on ''Accidental" use of force?

Well, you'd be reviewing it for that if you were going to claim you were acting as an officer when you shot the mysterious stranger in your dark bedroom at 0400. Because then you get the magic cloak of qualified immunity.

It takes it out of the "I screwed the pooch and shot my wife" and puts it into the "even when I'm off duty, I'm on duty, and I saw this possible perp in my bedroom and responded with force as per department policy, so nanny nanny boo boo you can't touch me"

Of course. I get all that and agree.

The "Accidental" use of force seems like a bit of an oxymoron, to me. I read the Chief's statement to 911 that he accidentally
shot his wife as meaning he accidentally fired his weapon. There can be no proper use of accidentally firing your weapon.

OTOH, if I'm wrong and he meant he purposely fired his weapon not knowing it was his wife he was shooting, then that's different. But still seems awfully shady to me that one can take shots in the dark where others are known to reside.

a reply to: Hijinx

Innocent until proven guilty.

This popular figure of speech doesn't apply in this case.


Innocent until proven guilty is why we have arrests & trials...

You're only guilty when the judge or jury decide so...
Everyone is innocent up until that point... Whether they've been arrested & charged or not.

originally posted by: Expat888
Saves money on divorce costs ..

Yeah, but'll cost the people a small fortune to keep him behind bars for the rest of his li...what the hell am i talking about? He's a Police Chief, so it will only cost the people for the two rounds he put in her.

Well, later reports state she was only shot once, which contradicts his 911 statement. I'd like to know if anyone has determined how many shots were fired. Also, how is it he accidentally shot her, if that's the case. Sure, it's possible, even with two shots, but knowing the details would help.

As for his not being arrested, well, what we need to know here is how others in the same situation are treated in his area. If they are not automatically arrested, then all is well. If they are, and he wasn't, then that's preferential treatment. It seems unlikely that someone could shoot a family member and not be arrested, simply because they claimed it was accidental. This looks preferential. A cop with real integrity would demand to be arrested till the investigation was concluded, simply to avoid such an appearance.

I wonder if we well ever get the facts.

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: Shamrock6

Placed on leave pending an investigation. Doesn't mean he won't be arrested or charged, it means they're investigating the incident.

Is that the usual protocol?


Wouldn't he at least be arrested & bailed pending an investigation rather than free to go until further notice?



Or is it all done depending on the State?

For you or I, yes. For 'law enforcement', no.

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
Well, later reports state she was only shot once, which contradicts his 911 statement. I'd like to know if anyone has determined how many shots were fired. Also, how is it he accidentally shot her, if that's the case. Sure, it's possible, even with two shots, but knowing the details would help.

As for his not being arrested, well, what we need to know here is how others in the same situation are treated in his area. If they are not automatically arrested, then all is well. If they are, and he wasn't, then that's preferential treatment. It seems unlikely that someone could shoot a family member and not be arrested, simply because they claimed it was accidental. This looks preferential. A cop with real integrity would demand to be arrested till the investigation was concluded, simply to avoid such an appearance.

I wonder if we well ever get the facts.

It's turning into yet another farce, so let's try something different. He didn't shoot a second time because he missed the first time, in fact he didn't mean to shoot at all. H e was cleaning his weapon, (his gun that is) and took a fit of *sneezing and unfortunately the safety was off, (if it was ever on)

* Sneezing is considered an uncontrollable seizure.
As for arrest, Well he could have been detained for 'Reasonable suspicion' for a while, but the police on the job could only think 'Probable Cause' and because he had the cold it didn't warrant 'Probable cause' since the sneezing fit...fits.
To cap it all he hadn't washed for a week with this cold and stank to high heaven, and would be a health hazard in a patrol car. I hope this helps.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Apparently it has been determined that only one bullet had been discharged from his gun. Mrs. McCollom is in critical condition. Hopefully she will pull through.

The GBI will handle the shooting investigation. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang originally said Chief McCollom called 911 to say he accidentally shot his wife twice with his service weapon. After further investigation, Lang said it was determined that only one bullet had been discharged.

The wife of Peachtree City Police Chief William E. McCollom is in critical condition after being shot by her husband Thursday morning.

source

originally posted by: MrLimpet
a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

Apparently it has been determined that only one bullet had been discharged from his gun.

The GBI will handle the shooting investigation. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang originally said Chief McCollom called 911 to say he accidentally shot his wife twice with his service weapon. After further investigation, Lang said it was determined that only one bullet had been discharged.

source

hmm he could setting himself up for a plea of temporary insanity....."i thought i shot my wife twice,turns out i was not all there i only fired once"

time to grease the ole grand jury machine

With a semi auto or revolver, I find it hard to believe a person accidentally shoots someone twice. Maybe he only fired once but then his reporting of two shots fired is troublesome. If he did get two off and it's not intentional, he needs to put down firearms for a while.