Bob CollinsBefore there were dashboard cameras in police cars, situations like this ended up as one person’s version of events vs. someone else’s. But today’s release of a video of an incident in St. Louis County provides plenty of insight into why area police departments almost universally chose to use Justice Department stimulus money last year on more dashboard cameras.
The St. Louis County Attorney has ruled that a shooting involving Trooper Travis Pearson was justified.
According to the Department of Public Safety news release:
Around 11:10 p.m. on June 12, Pearson responded to a 911 call of shots fired in Cherry Township. The video, taken from Pearson’s in-squad dash camera, shows Pearson following the shooting suspect, Donnie Joe Lira, 66, of Cherry Township, into his driveway. The video shows Lira exiting his vehicle with a long gun, and after repeated commands from Pearson to drop the gun, Lira loads the gun and begins to point the gun toward Pearson, forcing the trooper to fire his weapon. Lira was shot and later died of his wounds.
