M4, what can you tell us about the grand jury that No Billed SA Braga?

Take your finger off the trigger there, Roy Rogers. I'm pissed at the feds too. Braga should be behind the counter at Burger King, not carrying a gun and a badge and the power to destroy lives and get away with it. Joe Schultz is the [b]second[/b] unarmed man he's shot.

My request was pretty fucking straightforward, and I thought noncontroversial. I don't get the Maryland papers, so I wanted to know what you had heard, if anything, about the events at the grand jury that found no crime was committed by SA Braga. Did the DA steer the grand jury to no true bill, or was it really the will of the people?

Are you objecting to me hijacking what isn't even your thread, or did you read something into my question that wasn't there?

Shrugging his shoulders, "This shit happens all the time."

Slight grin from one corner of his mouth, "I feel terrible about what happened."

Anger showing, "Damn, gold diggers are just trying to get money for nothing."

Asshole should be in jail.  How many crooks in prison do you think have said, I made a mistake.

A friend of mine, while attending a police academy, told me of a quote from one of his instructors:

Update:

[url=www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.fbi29may29,0,3392881.story?coll=bal%2Dhome%2Dheadlines]FBI agent describes Arundel shooting[/url]

In court filing, he says 'split-second' action taken at botched traffic stop

By Gail Gibson
Sun Staff
Originally published May 29, 2003



An FBI agent who mistakenly shot an unarmed Pasadena man in the face last year says in court papers that he believed the unwitting victim was a wanted bank robber who was reaching for a weapon when, "in a split-second decision," the agent fired "a single shot for his and his fellow officers' safety."

Special Agent Christopher R. Braga offered his first detailed account of the event in court papers made public yesterday as he and two other agents argued that a $10 million federal lawsuit brought by shooting victim Joseph C. Schultz lacks merit and should be dismissed.

In their court filings, the agents say the March 1, 2002, shooting near the Marley Station Mall in Anne Arundel County during a botched traffic stop was a tragic event. But the agents argue that they took reasonable steps as law enforcement officers, which should protect them from legal action.

"The law ... recognizes that not every investigation, nor every arrest, is perfect," Andrew C. White, a Baltimore attorney representing Braga, said in the records filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. "Under the circumstances, however, 20-20 hindsight and the observations of talented attorneys will not transform an honest mistake in the search for a violent felon into a viable" lawsuit.

An attorney for FBI Special Agent Henry F. Hanburger, one of Braga's supervisors that day, gave a blunter assessment, writing in court papers that Schultz "is attempting to turn a lamentable mistake into a $10 million bonanza, at the expense of agents who were trying to apprehend a bank robbery suspect who was believed to be armed, dangerous and determined not to be returned to jail."

"That the person arrested was not, in fact, the suspect is regrettable, but not actionable," David B. Irwin, a Towson attorney, said in Hanburger's motions.

Arnold M. Weiner and Robert J. Weltchek, Lutherville attorneys who represent Schultz, dismissed the defendant's arguments as "legal maneuverings that will be of no avail."

"It's interesting that law enforcement officers generally cry foul when defendants try to escape on legal technicalities, and in this case, the defendants are trying to do just that," Weltchek said yesterday.

Schultz, 21, was shot in the face after agents stopped the car his then-girlfriend, Kristen M. "Krissy" Harkum, was driving. Harkum, now 17, was not wounded in the shooting, but she also filed a $10 million lawsuit in Baltimore's federal court to compensate her for "severe emotional injury."

In their lawsuits, filed in early March, Schultz and Harkum alleged that the agents had disregarded bureau arrest policies and then played down the potentially deadly result. The complaint quoted one of the defendant agents, Lawrence S. Brosnan, as telling an informant at the scene: "This [expletive] happens every day."

The lawsuits filed by Schultz and Harkum also described Braga as having exhibited a "startling propensity for shooting unarmed persons," pointing to a Feb. 3, 2000, shooting by Braga of a fugitive homicide suspect in Prince George's County - a shooting ruled justified.

Schultz and Harkum also criticized agents for laughing in the backseat of a bureau car after the March 1, 2002, event, a moment captured by a local television station's camera.

In their filings, defense attorneys asked U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz to strike some of the language in the original complaint, saying it was based on wrong information in many instances and designed only to prejudice a potential jury.

Braga in his filing rebutted the suggestion that he and other agents were laughing about the shooting after it happened, saying that, "The evidence will establish ... that Agent Braga felt absolutely terrible about what happened and that over an hour after the shooting, one of his fellow agents told a funny story about the agent's dog in an effort to provide momentary relief from the tense situation."

Brosnan, who was acting in a supervisory role that day, said the dismissive statement attributed to him was untrue.

"Agent Brosnan attempted to console [the informant] at the scene and to reassure him that he was not responsible for what had happened," Brosnan's attorney, John A. Bourgeois of Baltimore, wrote in the court filing. "Agent Brosnan adamantly denies that he said anything remotely similar to this [expletive] happens all the time."

On the day of the shooting, FBI agents were looking for Michael J. Blottenberger, who was suspected of driving the getaway vehicle in the robbery of a Pasadena bank branch. The agents expected Blottenberger to arrive at a 7-Eleven convenience store, and they expected him to be riding in a red car and wearing a white baseball cap.

Instead, Schultz and Harkum pulled up to the 7-Eleven in her red Pontiac Grand Am. Schultz, wearing a white baseball cap, went into the store and bought drinks for himself and Harkum.

Schultz and Harkum say in their lawsuit that the agents then wrongly zeroed in on their vehicle; the agents countered this week that they acted reasonably when they turned their attention to the car. Brosnan, in his response, noted that he only told nearby agents to "just follow, not stop," the car.

A few minutes later, at the direction of Hanburger to stop the car, two FBI vehicles forced the young couple to the side of the road and four FBI agents approached the Grand Am, according to court records and police accounts. The Schultz lawsuit claimed that the agents first ordered Schultz and Harkum to "show your hands." A moment later, the agents allegedly issued a second order: "Unlock the doors."

In their complaint, Schultz and Harkum claimed that Braga fired his M-14 rifle when Schultz moved to unlock the car door, his hands visible.

In his response, Braga said he fired when Schultz appeared to reach for his waist - as if to pull out a weapon, although Braga's response noted that Harkum and a former attorney for Schultz said soon after the incident that Schultz was shot as he reached to unfasten his seat belt.

"If plaintiff Harkum previously thought Mr. Schultz was reaching for his waist area at that time, it cannot be said that Agent Braga was not, or could not have been, confronted with the same actions prior to firing his weapon at Mr. Schultz," Braga's filing said.

A grand jury in Anne Arundel County cleared Braga last year of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting. But a county police report said that the FBI search for Blottenberger was flawed from the start, with agents unable to relay key information because of faulty and outdated radio equipment.

A separate Justice Department review of the incident has yet to be concluded or made public.

Blottenberger, who was captured within weeks of the mistaken shooting, was convicted of federal bank robbery charges. Schultz, after several surgeries, took a job repairing water coolers, his attorneys said this year.

To read previous stories about the shooting, turn to SunSpot at [url]www.sunspot.net/fbishooting[/url].