It matters what was in his hand, not his blood
I don’t care if there was only a trace of blood in Erik Scott’s drug system. I don’t care about what was in his blood or his head. What was in his hand?
It seemed like every time Wednesday afternoon I switched back to the broadcast of the coroner’s inquest into the shooting of Scott by Metro police another doctor was testifying about Scott’s use of various drugs — morphine, Xanax, hydrocodone. It seemed, as the Scott family lawyer later avowed, an attempt to assassinate the character of the dead man, rather than an effort to get at what happened.
It was like accusing someone of a hate crime. It really makes no difference why someone committed a crime. It matters only that a crime occurred. Motive, proclivities, history of child abuse, psychology, drug use, drunkenness are irrelevant. The act is what counts.
The officers’ rationale for shooting Scott is what matters. Were they justified, based on their knowledge that there was an armed man supposedly acting erratic and that man’s behavior on being confronted by them, in killing him?
Finally, at the close of testimony on the first day of the inquest — possibly in a nod to the law of primacy and recency, one is most persuaded by the first and last things heard — a witness said she saw Scott pull and point a gun at an officer.
Since there apparently is no surveillance video of the incident, the jury will have to determine justification by relying on conflicting witness testimony and possibly audio from the 911 call to police, which may reveal whether Scott was ordered to drop his weapon and/or “get on the ground.”
Whether he was juiced to the gills is not relevant.
Dr. Shari Klein testifies during an inquest for Erik Scott, who had been her patient in the past. Klein said Scott asked her to prescribe the painkiller hydrocodone, but she refused.
Costco employee Colleen Kullberg demonstrates how she said Erik Scott pulled a gun on police officers. She was the first eyewitness to the shooting to testify at the Erik Scott inquest Wednesday.
