Charges dropped against Philadelphia officer who fatally shot Eddie Irizarry at traffic stop

A judge dismissed all charges Tuesday against a Philadelphia police officer who fatally shot a driver last month.

Mark Dial shot 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry through the rolled-up driver’s side window of Irizarry’s sedan during a traffic stop on Aug. 14.

Dial and his partner, Officer Michael Morris, say they had been pursuing Irizarry for driving erratically and turning the wrong way down a one-way street. Morris testified that Irizarry had a knife in his hand and had started to raise it as the officers approached.

During a hearing, Dial’s lawyers argued he acted in self-defense because he believed the knife Irizarry had was a gun. Brian McMonagle, one of his lawyers, said his client was justified in shooting as he was trying to take cover and had feared for his life during the incident.

“Every tragedy is not a crime,” McMonagle said.

Initial statements from the police department said Dial shot the driver outside the vehicle after he “lunged at” police with a knife, but the department later walked back these statements.

Still, McMonagle said the charges, which included manslaughter, official oppression and four other counts, never should have been filed given the evidence.

“I agree with you 100 percent,” Judge Wendy Pew responded before tossing all charges Tuesday, per the Associated Press.

A_Random_Idiot,

“Every tragedy is not a crime,” McMonagle said defending a criminal murderer who totally done did a criminal murder.

be_excellent_to_each_other,
be_excellent_to_each_other avatar

How is it possible that there is zero legal consequence for this: "Initial statements from the police department said Dial shot the driver outside the vehicle after he “lunged at” police with a knife, but the department later walked back these statements."

I highlight this because I would struggle to think of a controversial case where video confirmed police statements about what happened (the only one I can think of is that poor young girl with the knife in Ohio), but time after time after time we see police statements later proven to be blatant falsehoods and it seems to not matter whatsoever. (Walter Scott is the first example that penetrated my consciousness, but I know there have been many more.)

Why is there no consequence (ever, as far as I can tell) for police fabrication of events?

A_Random_Idiot,

because cops have a literal history of rioting and murder when you try to hold them accountable.

So the only time anything ever gets done is when its caught on 3rd party camera and creates so much ruckus that the police officer is sacrificed to protect the greater corruption of the department and their political pawns.

Johanno,

It seems like the US is not a state of democracy anymore. Because if the law does not include the law enforcement you basically only one step away from dictatorship or similar.

SpeakinTelnet,
@SpeakinTelnet@sh.itjust.works avatar

I’m curious if there’s a similar situation where a civilian shot an officer because he was scared for his life and ended being dismissed in court for self defense.

A_Random_Idiot,

I do think theres been one or two cases where cops executed a warrant on the wrong house, and the home owner defended themselves, and not only survived but was found to have done no wrong, but I cant find the magic word combination to find anything but innumerable news stories about charges being dropped against cops.

ElleChaise,

deleted_by_author

    •
    A_Random_Idiot,

    Remember.

    Cops can be terrified, hyper reactionary cowards who jump to lethal force over every imagined crinkle of leaves, and we must have understanding about how hard things are for them.

    Bu non-police must be calm, collected, highly trained, vigilant and absolutely stoic in the most extreme, and must execute a detailed 5 page analysis on the situation before they can dare to act, because they should know better.

    be_excellent_to_each_other,
    be_excellent_to_each_other avatar

    Actually of all people Breonna Taylor's boyfriend.

    Also that guy in Minneapolis.

    I'm as F12 as you can get, but it does happen. Of course, you have to live first, which is unlikely when you defend yourself against cops.

    skweetis,

    What the actual fuck?! When I read this story a month ago I was furious because they claimed he was out of the car and lunging at them with a knife when they shot him through a closed car window. Mistaking someone for being out of the car and lunging at you when they are inside the car with the window rolled up is not the same as (claiming to) think a knife is a gun. So, you get to lie about what you were scared about and then revise your lie to something more plausible later on? So much fucking bullshit.

    Also, it should be noted that the police only "walked back" the statement about him being out of the car when the family went door to door and found ring cam footage that he was in the car. And they had to do this because the police wouldn't share body camera footage with the family.

    PsychedSy,

    It’s just accepted that they lie on police reports at this point.

    sock,

    they employ fiction authors to write the reports so they seem more fun and action packed

    AbouBenAdhem,

    Initial statements from the police department said Dial shot the driver outside the vehicle after he “lunged at” police with a knife, but the department later walked back these statements.

    Departments lying about officer-involved shootings should be a separately-prosecutable crime.

    OutlierBlue,

    Something about lying under oath, or making false reports maybe.

    Instigate,

    I’d call it Gross Misconduct in Execution of Government Duties - minimum sentence is a permanent dismissal from all government roles (at all levels) along with a major fine that can be taken from a government pension fund and goes directly to victims. Aggravating circumstances (lying about the death of a civilian, multiple lies compounded upon one another etc.) should come within minimum jail time. Cops should always be afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Only then do we get them on their best behaviour.

    Krauerking,

    Holy fucking fuck! Fuck this shit and fuck that piece of shit pig!

    FUCKING CHRIST! JUST FUCKING THROWING OUT THE CASE WHERE HE MURDERED A MAN THROUGH A CAR DOOR THAT FUCKING OPENS OUTWARDS?!! THEN FUCKING LIED AND LIED ABOUT FUCKING LYING!!

    Fuck you Wendy Pew I hope he’ll is real just so you rot in it and maybe I can meet you in it to make your afterlife a little bit worse.

    Cyberflunk,

    Growing up, I thought “street justice” would be more of a thing. Apparently people don’t take an eye for an eye.

    fuck that judge, fuck that cop

    squirrelwithnut,

    If a police officer can’t tell the difference between a knife and a gun, they shouldn’t be a police officer.

    Hazdaz,

    Why would some “innocent” person be lifting a knife at all, let alone to a cop?

    We going to pretend that knives aren’t deadly? Especially at close range?

    Signtist,

    They are, but you’re not close range sitting in your car with a rolled-up window between you and the guy outside. Even if he just cracked the window and tried stabbing through the opening it’d take a couple seconds.

    Procleus,

    I can tell you with certainty that a knife inside a car with the doors closed and windows rolled up is not immediately deadly or even dangerous to anyone standing outside of the car. Unless of course the doors opened and the knife was brought out of the car, THAT would be deadly to the officer. But that isn’t what happened. And unless I’ve missed something, no one here has said or implied that the man with the knife was “innocent”

    Hazdaz,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    i_am,

    It sucks we have to live on the same planet as people like you

    Hazdaz,

    There wouldn’t be much of a planet if everyone was like you - defending or apologizing for thieves, rapists and murderers.

    Happenchance,

    You are literally defending what appears to be a murderer.

    :|

    Hazdaz,

    Charges dropped against Philadelphia officer

    Maybe you missed that part. I mean it was the very first few words of the headline, but clearly you didn’t comprehend it.

    CoderKat,

    Are you suggesting that because the charges were dropped, he’s not a murderer? Because that’s not how language works. Being legally proven to have done a crime is not the same as having done the crime. You can be convicted while innocent or have charges dropped when actually guilty. It’s perfectly valid to call someone a murder even if the legal system is a failure.

    Redditiscancer789,

    Charges

    Or maybe just maybe they know they’ve already filed for new charges by the DA and didn’t just take 1 article at face value you ignorant fucking twat.

    themessenger.com/…/philadelphia-cop-mark-dial-cle…

    Court date is for oct 25th.

    HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM seems he’s not as clearly innocent as you want us to believe.

    Hazdaz,

    Innocent people pull out knifes on cops. Totally.

    Procleus,

    Again again again, no one is calling him innocent. Again again again, just because he isn’t innocent doesn’t mean he should have been shot. I mean how the fuck is this so hard to grasp?

    Hazdaz,

    The difficult part for you to gasp is that you don’t pull a fucken knife on a cop. Done. Period. You seem stupid, but even you aren’t dumb enough to do that. This guy? He fucked around and found out. Nothing of value was lost that day.

    pivot_root,

    This time, it’s a knife. Next time, it’s a middle finger.

    Dkarma,

    There’s none of those in his situation. Nice strawman. This dude committed no crime. You’re a lunatic.

    Hazdaz,

    Then stop the fucken car and maybe, just maybe, don’t pull out a fucken knife on an officer. But yeah, let’s pretend this guy was some innocent person. The news media will show pictures of him in his sunday best when he was 10 and hadn’t become a total become a piece of shit yet. His grandma will be on the news crying about “my baby!”. Yawn. We’ve all seen this shit before and the excuses run thin.

    Procleus,

    “Stop the fucken car” - the car was stopped when the officer shot him (he was shot 7 seven seconds after the officer got out of his patrol car according to the official report).

    “Don’t pull out a fucken knife on an officer.” - the man was still inside his car with the doors closed and windows rolled up and as per Pennsylvania law, it is legal to have a knife out and in the open in your vehicle. Assuming the man intended to use the knife against the officer, I beg you to give a scenario in which the man could stab his knife through the car door and injur the officer. If you say something like “well, he could have gotten out of his car and stabbed the cop hur dur dur.” Then just save your breath. We could argue all day about what could have happened. The fact is, it didn’t. The man didn’t get out of his car to attack the officer with the knife, and the officer wasn’t in danger. End of story.

    Hazdaz,

    deleted_by_moderator

    •
    Saracha,

    Most people don’t bend over backwards when the government kills a guy for the crime of, having a weapon that couldn’t possibly harm the officer. Unless we’re going to be good with cops shooting everyone with a NRA sticker on their car we probably shouldn’t be good with it here.

    Hazdaz,

    If you pull out a deadly weapon on a cop, don’t expect to ever make it home. That’s reality. Trying to act like pulling out a knife is normal behavior and then defending this guy is rather ridiculous.

    Saracha,

    So if we’re pretending that the cop could be taken at his word and also pretending that while behind a barrier that the cop would be beyond a reasonable doubt threatened by that, that’s still the crime of brandishing a weapon, which isn’t punishable by death in any court. Cops manage to not kill people all the time, it’s not unreasonable to hold them accountable to the already low standards we hold cops to in the US.

    Hazdaz,

    Nothing of value was lost that day. Don’t pull knives out on cops. This isn’t a particularly difficult concept to understand.

    Procleus,

    It’s really worrisome that you keep repeating the rhetoric of “nothing of value was lost that day.” A human life was lost that day. A mother and father’s son was lost that day. So you just believe that because he committed a crime (which, by the way, his only official crimes were traffic violations. Having a knife in his hands in his own car is not a crime), his life doesn’t have value? So should every criminal in our justice system just be put to death? Are you actually a sociopath? Nvm, I know the answer.

    Exusia, (edited )
    @Exusia@lemmy.world avatar

    Id like to specifically draw attention to “don’t pull a knife on a cop”

    6 hour standoff, with swat in Atlanta - captured alive

    4 hour standoff with a copkiller - captured alive

    police break off car chase in SF, suspect gets arrested anyway

    Houston PD leave a traffic stop, because a crowd was unruly and it was unsafe

    These are MUCH worse than the current incident started as, and ended with the suspects apprehended alive, unlike the current incident. Use of force continuum dictate that if the other party uses a Deadly Force Assault you are permitted to use Lethal Force. However they ALSO carry that if you can use a lower level to successfully walk away without Violence (the adjective proper) being needed, you have had a successful UoF.

    Shooting a man IN the car with a knife is not proper use of force. He was not capable of escalating to Deadly Force Assault on the continuum. Officers preparing to draw their service weapon and giving clear verbal commands can diffuse that. “Do not get out of the car” “drop the knife”. They could hold the door closed, or beging backing away to make distance so that they can draw and/or fire if he exited the vehicle against instructions. At this stage Brandishing, threatening behavior, or even terroristic threats are appropriate charges. If someone gets out of the vehicle without a clear verbal command, and lunges at persons with a knife, 2then him being dead now would be a fair use of force.

    In the first 2 pages cited, several violent people got the opportunity to surrender, and various law enforcement entities gave them time to do so. Not cited is one that was ELEVEN hours long. This traffic stop started and ended in like what, 30 minutes?

    In the last two, the police decided the situation was unsafe and rather than escalating Use of Force, they decided a lower level was appropriate. In sanfran, they followed him with a heli and apprehended him. In Houston they just…left. they decided the stop wasn’t safe. Those people SURELY threatened them and walked away just fine. But the stop for the man can be a mailed ticket, and did not need to escalate to shooting people.

    Your replies make heavy, fast assumptions about how “nothing of value was lost”. However it broadly displays your lack of involvement in fields where use of force is used and the policies that surround it

    Procleus,

    The man in question (who is dead) was neither accused nor convicted of being, as you said, a thief, a rapist, of a murderer. So which of those criteria do you think they are defending because in this instance (as per YOUR OWN WORDS), it’s none of them.

    Hazdaz,

    Normal, innocent people are quick to pull it out on a cop. Yeah. Of course. Absolutely. And that doesn’t even factor in his erratic driving and going down a wrong way. Nothing of value was lost that day.

    Procleus,

    “And that doesn’t even factor in his erratic driving and going the wrong way.” All of the crimes you mentioned here are basic traffic violations in Pennsylvania and would be punishable by a single ticket.

    Hazdaz,

    Not this time!

    clueless_stoner,

    What an asshole.

    Zombiepirate,
    @Zombiepirate@lemmy.world avatar

    And here I thought we had silly things like rights, like being able to face our accuser in court instead of being shot in the streets!

    Here’s an idea: people who love extrajudicial punishment should be given the same jury as the people who’s misfortune they gleefully celebrate: none.

    Hazdaz,

    Here’s another idea: Don’t pull a knife out on a cop. Not too complicated. Not particularly difficult to follow. In fact, for sane, innocent people, it only makes sense.

    Mr_Dr_Oink,

    You really need to grow up, mate. You have the logic and reasoning skills of my 8 year old nephew.

    Zombiepirate,
    @Zombiepirate@lemmy.world avatar

    Here’s another idea: Don’t pull a knife out on a cop. shoot people who aren’t putting people’s lives at risk and lie about it. Not too complicated. Not particularly difficult to follow. In fact, for sane, innocent people, it only makes sense.

    This is a fun game.

    tomi000,

    So “Im not innocent” = “I deserve to be killed by a cop” now? By that logic the US is gonna lose half its population in a very short time.

    MaxPow3r11,

    No one should be (unless they want to violently uphold a white supremacist system while pretending they are “protecting” people).

    blueeggsandyam,

    It is worse than that. They can’t tell if a person is inside a car or outside a car lunging at them. They clearly lied to cover up their incompetence. This person should not be a cop.

    who8mydamnoreos,

    Keep denying justice to people and they will start to take it upon themselves to see it done. I personally don’t want to see lynch mobs, but if a few pigs have to swing for them to get the message they brought it on themselves

    Otakulad,

    I hope any person who has to go to trial and this officer is called as a witness uses this as an example as to why they arent a good witness.

    “Officer, in 2023 you fatally shot a man after you said he got out of his car and lunged at you with a knife. You later backtracked on this and said he was in his car with the windows up. How can we trust what you have to say if you can’t remember what happened then?”

    doingthestuff,

    There’s actually a registry of cops who have been shown to lie so that their testimony can be disregarded. I hope there’s someone out there who makes this happen for this cop.

    AndyLikesCandy,

    Alas, his lawyer and the judge would agree on how inadmissable this fact will be. Enjoy getting fucked. Don’t forget to vote to make sure these assholes are the only ones people in town with guns!

    Jaysyn,
    Jaysyn avatar

    Time for the Feds to swoop in & charge this asshole as they did for Breona Taylor's murderers.

    girlfreddy,

    I hope the prosecution files an appeal but I also won’t hold my breath on that happening.

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