Cop prevented RB from being with dying relative

Cop prevented RB from being with dying relative

msn.foxsports.com

PLANO, Texas (AP) - A police officer pulled over a professional football player rushing to see his dying mother-in-law, drew his gun, threatened the player with jail and held him in the hospital parking lot as she died, officials said Thursday.

He ordered Tamishia Moats to get back in the SUV, but she ignored him and rushed inside the hospital to see her mother, Jonetta Collinsworth, 45, and was by her side when she died a short time later. She had breast cancer.

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I saw this story on ESPN, where they showed the dashcam video. The cop really showed bad judgment. He was totally wrong, and I hope his is punished, as do many others.

Let the guys go see their family, and then if it's really that important give them the ticket later. But if they only have minutes to say goodbye, it's really upsetting that the cop held them outside. The running back, Ryan Moats, didn't get to say goodbye to his mother in law because of the cop.

But I'm not going to turn this into a thread about "all cops are horrible people", because that is the opposite of how I feel. There are some, like this man, who are way out of line, but they aren't all like that. The station held a press conference and the police chief was clearly embarrassed at his actions and not happy with him at all. The cop is on administrative leave with pay though.




msn.foxsports.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I am absolutely sickened by this. Everyone knows that I am a supporter of the officers who protect us every day.
This particular officer was as wrong as it gets.
Moats was going to say goodbye to his mother in law who was minutes away from dying in the hospital.
I wasn't there, but as I hear the story, Moats stopped at the red light, put his flashers on then after seeing all was clear he went through it directly to the hospital. You're DAMN RIGHT that I would have done the same thing. I have to guess that many of you would have as well. Moats never pulled the "Do you know who I am" doo doo.
The officer was not wrong for the initial stop, but Jeez Louise. After not one but TWO hospital staff including the nurse on duty came out and explained what Mr. Moats was saying was true, and that she coded 3 times.......(Coded means that she needed to be resuscitated)
For cryin' out loud.
You want to give him a ticket?
Let the man go in and say goodbye. Wait outside for him to come back out then give him the ticket.
This officer is plain and simply wrong. I did NOT SAY POLICE, I said this PARTICULAR officer. No excuse.

My prayers go out to Mr. Moats and his family.

Fortunately Mrs. Moats was able to say her goodbye. Mr Moats never got to say goodbye, as she passed away before he had the chance to enter the hospital.

Awful. Just plain awful.




[edit on 27-3-2009 by lombozo]

It's incidents like this that make me appreciate all the more the police officers who are capable of exercising good judgment. Fortunately for me, I've never had an interaction with an officer who was incapable of doing that.

I'll wager that every single day there are thousands of incidents where officers go way above and beyond to help someone. Unfortunately, those aren't news worthy situations.

Or depending upon your perspective, maybe those incidents are so common they're really not news worthy.

I wonder how many times a day traffic cops hear similar excuses for speeding?

Imagine if the cop let him go, people would complain that the rich were getting special treatment.

Yes, the officer was wrong. He should have realized that these people were in a hospital, and just wanted to see their dying mother.

There is a problem thou, there are criminals that makes similar excuses, however, the cop should ahve gone with the running back to see if it was true, and then let him say godbye to his mother.

Originally posted by wookiee


Imagine if the cop let him go, people would complain that the rich were getting special treatment.

And that would be stupid of those people because he never said "I'm a running back in the NFL who makes millions of dollars".



msn.foxsports.com...

Cop quit.

The officer, Powell resigned.

Dallas police officer who prevented NFL player from reaching dying relative resigns

The police officer who pulled out his gun and threatened an NFL player with jail instead of allowing him inside a hospital where his mother-in-law was dying resigned Wednesday.
******SKIP******
"I made this decision in the hope that my resignation will allow the Dallas Police Department, my fellow officers and the citizens of Dallas to better reflect on this experience, learn from the mistakes made, and move forward," Powell said in a statement issued through his attorneys.

He'll probably just get hired as an officer in some other town or city now and just go right back to treating "the civilians" the same way he treated Moats!

[edit on 4/3/2009 by Keyhole]