Chargers Linebacker Steve Foley Shot by a Cop

[Jumpin Johnies]

Charger starting linebacker Steve Foley has been shot after an

altercation with a

police officer.

 

Here is the story according to KUSI News in San Diego

 

Link: http://www.kusi.com/home/3815221.html

 

Clipped from the KUSI.com article:

 

A San Diego Charger was shot Sunday morning by an off duty police

officer. It

happened around 3:30 Sunday morning..when an off duty Coronado police

officer

started following a man who was driving erratically. Police say the

driver is

Chargers linebacker Steve Foley.

 

The officer identified himself several times as a police officer, but

Foley would

not pull over. Foley then drove to his own neighborhood in Poway where

he got out

of the car and his girlfriend got behind the wheel. Police say Foley

came at the

officer who fired a warning shot. The woman then drove the car at the

officer. The

officer fired into the car, then shot Foley. But police say Foley kept

coming, and

the off duty officer shot him several more times. Foley was taken to

Sharp Hospital

for surgery. The woman was taken into custody. No charges have been

filed yet.

Steve Foley was arrested back in April for battery on a police officer

and public

drunkeness.

[Flip_Side]

That's crazy.

[TheGrunt]

[rebdog]

holy crap!

[cdrudge]

Cnn has a bit more information here.

 

Of course we don't know all the details, but an off duty cop in an unmarked car 20 miles out of his jurisdiction? With all sorts of wackos out there these days, I'm not sure if I would listen to someone who "claimed" he was a cop but had no other supporting evidence.

[The Irish Doggy]

Wow, I thought Steve Foley was one of the good guys. That is just stupid.

[Chargerz]

Wow, I thought Steve Foley was one of the good guys. That is just stupid.

 

Foley's had brushes with the law before. The latest incident was earlier this year and was late at night and involved alcohol.

[TecmoBeast]

way to keep it real homey

Edited September 4, 2006 by TecmoBeast

[McBoog]

Foley has had some trouble with the law. He is not a big time bad guy, just VERY rough around the edges. I want him playing linebacker for my team, NOT dating my daughter.

 

What I do know is that I have no idea what this "off-duty" Coronado (the small island community that forms the harbor) police officer thought he was doing.

 

- "Warning Shots" are strictly forbidden by the majority of Police entities and I believe ALL in California. You shoot to stop illegal/life threatening actions, not scare people into submission. The liability alone in shooting someone by accident has stopped this practice.

 

- Why would he do this in his own car? Most of us are trained to use a cell phone and call in a marked unit. Even on-duty plain cloaths officers do this. Is this guy a Cowboy? Maybe he didn't have a cell phone. Protocol would still be to follow and deal with the situation either when an accident occurs OR be agood witness and wait until they/he stops.

 

- It doesn't sound lkike he was actually driving. He got out of the car and the chick kept driving!?!? Why not shoot the immediate threat, the car coning towards you?

 

This is a very strange story. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it.

[jjpro11]

thats some crazy stuff.. and he very well may not get charged with anything considering the very weird circumstances.

[Ursa Majoris]

He's just another idiot thug - screw him.

[Swiss Cheezhead]

McBoog is right on -- if somebody fired a "warning" shot at me, I'd just assume he was NOT a cop, since that defies all kinds of protocol.

 

I hope Foley is OK, despite Ursa's blanket statement.

[Swiss Cheezhead]

This from the CNN article, quoting the officer: he started following Foley's car after he saw it about 10 miles north of San Diego on Interstate 15 northbound "weaving in lanes, traveling at speeds of between 30 and 90 mph and nearly colliding with several other vehicles on the highway."

 

Uhh, this guy must have been really bored. Foley was slowing down to 30, apparently because there were cars in front of him, then speeding up to 90 and weaving through traffic. "Nearly colliding with other vehicles"? Well, yeah, I guess when you weave in front of or around cars on the highway, you're only a couple of feet from them, so you almost collide with them every time.

 

Sounds like my regular experience on any well traveled interstate.

[wildcat2334]

He's just another idiot thug - screw him.

 

 

 

thats bullchit- I want to hear how this plays out. I am always a bit skeptical when I hear the term "plainclothes" or 'off duty" b/c of how easily something like that can obviously get outta control.

Edited September 4, 2006 by wildcat2334

[Roy]

Very few facts here to get to bent one way or the other ... I can go either way with what I know ...

 

Swiss Cheesehead ... 30-90 miles an hour ... while may be typical during the day, at 3:30 am is not necessarily because of traffic, but could be just because he is so drunk - and that is a big deal if it is true.

 

Then again, I agree, off duty - you call for back up. You don't make a stop at 3:30 am by yourself - I assume he had none of his usual equipment except his gun, so it excalted quicker than it should have.

 

Let's get some more facts ....... meanwhile, it hurts my chargers ....

[Ursa Majoris]

thats bullchit- I want to hear how this plays out. I am always a bit skeptical when I hear the term "plainclothes" or 'off duty" b/c of how easily something like that can obviously get outta control.

 

Whatever. This scenario plays out too often for me to offer any more than a :

[McBoog]

Here is the morning article. It raises, for me, more questions than provides answers.

 

 

Being in law enforcement myself and having been a firearms, tactics and safety officer, I am always very sceptical when I hear stories like this. I am one of the few in my profession that will admit that law enforcement draws way too many "cowboys" that get through the cracks and on the street. The "one bad apple" saying comes to mind and it is soooo true when it comes to our "thin blue line".

 

What I do know for a fact is this, if this cop was in my department, independent of the facts, he would be looking at some form of consequence for putting himself in this situation. He is the one that seems to have pushed this to its tragic point. A little bit of the "cowboy" menatality.

 

The article states that he HAD a radio and called other officers in the area to let them know what was going on. WHY DID HE NOT WAIT for the jurisdictional officers to respond? If the threat of an accident, in a cul-de-sac had been terminated, why not wait for the local ON DUTY beat cops to respond, IN UNIFORM, IN MARKED UNITS, to handle the situation

 

The law allows – but does not require – off-duty police officers to make arrests when they witness suspected misdemeanor crimes, including drunken driving, said Paul Pfingst, the former San Diego County district attorney now in private practice.

 

“If a person resists arrest, (the officer) has no duty to retreat, if they use deadly force against him, he has the right to defend himself,” said Pfingst, who also served on the San Diego Police Department's review board scrutinizing police shootings and misconduct accusations.

 

The first was clearly a choice on the part of the cop. What was he doing out at this time of the night? Had he been drinking in a club or at a friends house too? Maybe not, but worth asking the question.

 

The second shows me at least, that this cop did not and had no immediate need to confront Foley in a manner, by himself, that would have likely caused a confrontational situation. It is likely that while being off-duty, he did not have any intermediary methods to control his adversary like mace or a baton. Though he had no "duty to retreat", from a personal safety issue and the fact that nobody to this point had been killed or injured, he could have easily pulled off, watched from a distance and waited for the LOCAL calvalry to arrive!

 

I do not doubt, given the history of Foley and the arrest of his chick that night for alcohol or drug related charges, that there should have been some form of police action taken!

 

I also believe that this situation was ultimately handled in a very non-professional manner and believe this cop is looking at a very difficult few months ahead.

 

As a side note:

 

PEOPLE, this is the reason why you comply AT THE TIME with the orders of police officers. If you have objections at the time, keep your mouth closed, document everything, remember names or badge numbers and get a good attorney. Otherwise, these few bonehead cops that every department seems to have will go "Rodney King" on your a$$.

 

Even after identifiying myself as a "badge" and complying 100% in a case of mistaken identity, the San Diego PD still went off on me. As they cross cuffed me (very painful!) and I let out a cry of pain, they all started shouting, "Stop resisting!". I ended up needing surgery to repair my shoulder as a result of this encounter...and I was being compliant (ask the witnesses ). This "stop resisting" technique, originally designed for protecting police in cases where subjects were actually resisting, is now used more by police to confuse the by-standers/witnesses than it is to actually stop someone who is resisting them. It gives them a percieved blanket of protection from being heavy handed.

 

In the street, you WILL LOSE! Do what you are told at the time and deal with the rest of it later!

[Swiss Cheezhead]

Good advice from McBoog.

 

And there are always ways to "even things out" in the grey area of "The Street."

[Chargerz]

Just announced on the local news that he's out for the year. Not a big surprise.

[TheGrunt]

Here is the morning article. It raises, for me, more questions than provides answers.

 

 

Being in law enforcement myself and having been a firearms, tactics and safety officer, I am always very sceptical when I hear stories like this. I am one of the few in my profession that will admit that law enforcement draws way too many "cowboys" that get through the cracks and on the street. The "one bad apple" saying comes to mind and it is soooo true when it comes to our "thin blue line".

 

What I do know for a fact is this, if this cop was in my department, independent of the facts, he would be looking at some form of consequence for putting himself in this situation. He is the one that seems to have pushed this to its tragic point. A little bit of the "cowboy" menatality.

 

The article states that he HAD a radio and called other officers in the area to let them know what was going on. WHY DID HE NOT WAIT for the jurisdictional officers to respond? If the threat of an accident, in a cul-de-sac had been terminated, why not wait for the local ON DUTY beat cops to respond, IN UNIFORM, IN MARKED UNITS, to handle the situation

The first was clearly a choice on the part of the cop. What was he doing out at this time of the night? Had he been drinking in a club or at a friends house too? Maybe not, but worth asking the question.

 

The second shows me at least, that this cop did not and had no immediate need to confront Foley in a manner, by himself, that would have likely caused a confrontational situation. It is likely that while being off-duty, he did not have any intermediary methods to control his adversary like mace or a baton. Though he had no "duty to retreat", from a personal safety issue and the fact that nobody to this point had been killed or injured, he could have easily pulled off, watched from a distance and waited for the LOCAL calvalry to arrive!

 

I do not doubt, given the history of Foley and the arrest of his chick that night for alcohol or drug related charges, that there should have been some form of police action taken!

 

I also believe that this situation was ultimately handled in a very non-professional manner and believe this cop is looking at a very difficult few months ahead.

I completely agree, and I hope this cop is reprimanded.

[Riffraff]

Foley will not be paid a dime this year by the Chargers since he was put on the non-football injury list.

 

Also, this is a string of alcohol related events for Foley, going back to his tenure in Cincinnati.

Edited September 5, 2006 by Riffraff

[LooGie]

Soloman Wilcotts on the Sirius NFL radio made it pretty clear that he felt there was some "murky" situations surrounding this incident. I even got the feeling he was making a statment that NFL players are constantly targeted because of their high public status, and put in situations to become a detriment to their team, much like a mob boss would demand they attemtp to throw a game.

 

He said he was involved in a situation with this same police force a while back, and was found "not guilty" which is odd in itself. How often is anyone found not guilty when they have a run in with a cop? (it's the classic "who they gonna believe" thing) then to be shot "a few days later by a member of the same polic force" seems very strange and "murky" indeed.

 

Just kinda regurgitating his views..I found them pretty interesting and made me

[Randall]

Cnn has a bit more information here.

 

Of course we don't know all the details, but an off duty cop in an unmarked car 20 miles out of his jurisdiction? With all sorts of wackos out there these days, I'm not sure if I would listen to someone who "claimed" he was a cop but had no other supporting evidence.

 

 

 

Well I've heard different stories here. Fired 3 times? Did he call for other officers while following the car? Seems weird.

[Randall]

Foley will not be paid a dime this year by the Chargers since he was put on the non-football injury list.

 

Also, this is a string of alcohol related events for Foley, going back to his tenure in Cincinnati.

 

 

 

Have the Chargers said that? I have heard they can get out of paying him but will they?

[Seahawk37]

Foley was placed on the Injured Reserve.