Dad Recording Football Game Mistaken For Sniper

[finalfrontier]

http://www.wsmv.com/education/10101995/detail.html

[ZTC]

that would be an 'oops' lol

Some people can be a bit paranoid at times...
but he was tresspassing, so that might warrant some concern :shrug:

[MottZilla]

They should fire the idiot that thought a LAWN CHAIR was a SNIPER RIFLE. Next, wouldn't it have been smarter to, oh I don't know, LOOK AND SEE IF HE REALLY HAS A GUN BEFORE CALLING A SWAT TEAM. I mean what the hell. Do these people even know what a rifle looks like? Or was that some REALLY fucked up chair?

[Aegix Drakan]

wtf?

that's just...stupid. what next? mistaking a hot dog for a stick of dynamite?

[erm2003]

This story reminds me when two friends of mine was just outside the air force base in Niagara Falls taking pictures. One was wearing a baseball cap backwards and happens to have a beard. Later on when they were back at home, they were visited by the FBI. Someone who spotted them at the base thought the baseball cap was a turban.

[AtmaWeapon]

Actually I can see how the mistake was made in certain circumstances.

My school is about 100 yards from the football field. Suppose I were carrying the recently popular butterfly-style chair to the roof for my recording session. A spectator standing 200 yards away (an officer at the midpoint of the field) would see a man climbing a ladder towards the roof with a long cylindrical object slung over his shoulders.

Now, given the information that the man is attempting to record the game one would first make the conclusion that it is a chair. However, odds are not many people sit on the roof of the school during games so the officer did not have the benefit of the information we are given. What's another object that can be long, cylindrical, and slung over the shoulders of a man seeking high ground with a clear view? A rifle.

It appears the SWAT team's response was timely and appropriate. The man failed to cooperate with their demands to kneel and assume a non-threatening position; instead he attempted to evade them. He is lucky they did not see him as a threat and fire at him, usually SWAT teams make the news for pulling triggers at the wrong time.

[MottZilla]

Why didn't get have binoculars? Even still, a rifle at that distance does not look the same as a fucking chair.

[AtmaWeapon]

Why didn't get have binoculars? Even still, a rifle at that distance does not look the same as a fucking chair.I'd draw a picture but that would be a little too much effort for my liking. At 200 yards and in poor lighting (assuming the football game took place near the evening hours) or with the sun in your eyes if you can precisely discern one object from another you sir have excellent vision.

Yes a chair does not look like a rifle. Do you think this guy had a rocking chair strapped to his back or something? It was most likely a folding chair, and based on the mistaken identity I'd wager it was the butterfly kind that can be folded up and put in a case, at which point it becomes a long object that appears rectangular at a distance.

A lot of people have a problem with filtering out information from the article and the information that a police officer in the situation would have. The police officer saw the following: Man scaling school building Man carrying large rectangular objectIs this normal behavior where you live? Probably not. I can understand the train of thought that led the officer to believe that there may be the chance the man's intents were malicious.

And nothing changes the fact that you don't run from a SWAT team that is ordering you to kneel. That alone makes me feel no pity for the man.