Cop fired for not shooting
Stephen Mader is a former Marine who used that training in his job, as a Weirton, West Virginia, police officer to de-escalate a situation and not shoot an armed man.
Mader was faced with an armed man who told the officer to shoot him. And because Mader did not shoot him, he is now a former Weirton, West Virginia, police officer.
Mader responded to a 911 domestic call on May 6 of a person threatening suicide. Mader found Ronald “RJ” Williams, Jr. standing outside the house and says that’s when his Marine training of “looking at ‘the whole person’ in deciding if someone was a terrorist, as well as his situational police academy training” took over:
“I saw then he had a gun, but it was not pointed at me,” Mr. Mader recalled, noting the silver handgun was in the man’s right hand, hanging at his side and pointed at the ground.
[ … ]
Mr. Mader, who was standing behind Mr. Williams’ car parked on the street, said he then “began to use my calm voice.”
“I told him, ‘Put down the gun,’ and he’s like, ‘Just shoot me.’ And I told him, ‘I’m not going to shoot you brother.’ Then he starts flicking his wrist to get me to react to it.
“I thought I was going to be able to talk to him and deescalate it. I knew it was a suicide-by-cop” situation.
Mader probably would have talked Williams down … if two other Weirton police officers hadn’t shown up on the scene and promptly shot Williams—in the back of the head, no less.
The case was investigated and the officer who killed Williams was found to have acted within policy. But Mader was fired for “failure to eliminate a threat.” By not shooting Williams, Mader was told his actions put two other officers at risk. Mader consulted with an attorney about getting his job back but was told that probably wasn’t going to happen
“ … He was told because he was still a probationary employee in an “at-will” state, he could be fired for any reason and there was no point in fighting the city.”
“One attorney told him the best he could hope for was to ask to resign instead of being terminated.”
“But I told [the attorney] ‘Look, I don’t want to admit guilt. I’ll take the termination instead of the resignation because I didn’t do anything wrong,’ ” Mr. Mader said. “To resign and admit I did something wrong here would have ate at me. I think I’m right in what I did. I’ll take it to the grave.”
Weirton terminates officer who did not fire at man with gun | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Stephen Mader is a former Marine who used that training in his job, as a Weirton, West Virginia, police officer to de-escalate a situation and not shoot an armed man.
Mader was faced with an armed man who told the officer to shoot him. And because Mader did not shoot him, he is now a former Weirton, West Virginia, police officer.
Mader responded to a 911 domestic call on May 6 of a person threatening suicide. Mader found Ronald “RJ” Williams, Jr. standing outside the house and says that’s when his Marine training of “looking at ‘the whole person’ in deciding if someone was a terrorist, as well as his situational police academy training” took over:
“I saw then he had a gun, but it was not pointed at me,” Mr. Mader recalled, noting the silver handgun was in the man’s right hand, hanging at his side and pointed at the ground.
[ … ]
Mr. Mader, who was standing behind Mr. Williams’ car parked on the street, said he then “began to use my calm voice.”
“I told him, ‘Put down the gun,’ and he’s like, ‘Just shoot me.’ And I told him, ‘I’m not going to shoot you brother.’ Then he starts flicking his wrist to get me to react to it.
“I thought I was going to be able to talk to him and deescalate it. I knew it was a suicide-by-cop” situation.
Mader probably would have talked Williams down … if two other Weirton police officers hadn’t shown up on the scene and promptly shot Williams—in the back of the head, no less.
The case was investigated and the officer who killed Williams was found to have acted within policy. But Mader was fired for “failure to eliminate a threat.” By not shooting Williams, Mader was told his actions put two other officers at risk. Mader consulted with an attorney about getting his job back but was told that probably wasn’t going to happen
“ … He was told because he was still a probationary employee in an “at-will” state, he could be fired for any reason and there was no point in fighting the city.”
“One attorney told him the best he could hope for was to ask to resign instead of being terminated.”
“But I told [the attorney] ‘Look, I don’t want to admit guilt. I’ll take the termination instead of the resignation because I didn’t do anything wrong,’ ” Mr. Mader said. “To resign and admit I did something wrong here would have ate at me. I think I’m right in what I did. I’ll take it to the grave.”
Weirton terminates officer who did not fire at man with gun | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
