Tough call, but right call

Two incidents in the recent days have shown a light on the work troopers do.

Too often they get bad mouthed for one incident or another or for not being johnny on the spot like we expect when we need them.

Last week a woman brandishing a gun at a health facility was shot and killed by troopers.

People wonder why the two troopers couldn’t wound her or taser her or use some other non-lethal method. The fact is police officers of almost any authority in any state are trained when they, or others, are threatened with a deadly weapon, they are to fire their weapons with intent to kill.

That’s hard to swallow when a mother is gunned down, but the troopers have not only their lives at stake, but the lives of people in the immediate area. A wounded individual with a deadly weapon could have ended with more lives lost. Then the troopers would certainly have heard the howls of protest from families who suffered the needless loss of a loved one. The investigation into the shooting of Debra L. Torrey is ongoing, but from all accounts of those who were there, the troopers used their training, and as bad as the outcome was, it ended just about the way any instance ends when an individual is threatening troopers with a gun.

Pat on the back

Trooper Investigator Rob Lawson could have called it a day last month when he had a couple of hombres in custody for a break-in and attempted robbery. In fact, the pair were indicted by a grand jury and were headed to trial. The only problem: They weren’t the bad guys.

Eyewitness accounts, often found not to be that reliable, pointed to the two men. Their vehicle matched the description given by the victims. Items in their car, right down to the correct colors, pointed toward their involvement.

But Lawson’s investigation included looking at a video tape at a gas station that proved that their alibis held up. Then a woman who allegedly was owed some money the robbers were trying to collect came forward and pointed out the real culprits.

A lazy cop would have been content to have “solved” the crime, given all the apparent evidence. An overworked public defender might not have had the time or gumption to conduct his own investigation. And a judge presented with the case would have been satisfied to send the men to prison.

It’d be nice to say that never happens, but until one sees the cattle call of arraignments on Monday morning, it’s hard to believe justice works every time like it did this time.

It brings to mind a defense attorney at one such an assembly of suspects saying, “I’ve got the front row, your honor.”

Police, attorneys and the courts — the system — doesn’t always get it right. This time, thanks to Investigator Lawson, it did.