Dad Calls Cops on Son to Teach Him a Lesson, Cops Shoot Son Dead


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James Comstock refused to buy a pack of cigarettes for his 19-year-old son, Tyler, and now he?s planning his son?s funeral.

?He took off with my truck. I call the police, and they kill him,? James Comstock told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday. ?It was over a damn pack of cigarettes. I wouldn?t buy him none.

?And I lose my son for that.?

Comstock said he?s outraged police shot and killed his son Monday morning on Iowa State University?s campus.

Latest updates:

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Dash cam videos from the chase, photos and family reaction at DesMoinesRegister.com/ISUshooting

Police began pursuing Tyler Comstock of Boone after his father reported the truck stolen. The truck belonged to a lawn care company.

Ames Police Officer Adam McPherson pursued Comstock into the heart of ISU?s campus. During the chase, Comstock rammed McPherson?s car. The truck eventually stopped, but Comstock revved the engine and refused orders to turn it off.

McPherson fired six shots into the truck. Comstock died from two gunshot wounds, according to the Iowa state medical examiner?s office.

James Comstock said his son was not carrying a weapon.

During the chase, an unidentified Ames police staffer twice suggested that police back off their pursuit, according to dispatch audio obtained by the Register through a third-party service. Audio: Listen to dispatchers and officers during the pursuit

Tyler Comstock?s step-grandfather, Gary Shepley, 65, of Cambridge, said ?hard, tough questions? need to be asked about the police?s actions.

Shepley said he keeps asking himself why police pursued an easily identifiable green-and-white lawn care truck into a busy part of campus. The family said police could have backed off and found the truck later.

?They?re professionals,? Shepley said. ?They?re trained to handle these situations. And if they panic before they even know what?s going on, then ask yourself: What if it was your child??

And why, Shepley asked, did an officer fire six rounds on a campus with innocent bystanders around, simply because Tyler Comstock refused orders to turn off the engine?

?So he didn?t shut the damn truck off, so let?s fire six rounds at him? We?re confused, and we don?t understand,? Shepley said.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131106/NEWS/311060044/Exclusive-Interview-In-ISU-case-police-action-baffles-family?Frontpage&nclick_check=1

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'Merica!
Where if you want something done, you do it WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY overboard.
Sucks to be him, guess the dad learned a lesson here too. 

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If the cops wanted him to stop and if they must use guns they could of just shot the engine... 

Agreed, the tires, the engine block, anything other than the person in this case because A) It's a child whose own parent called them to report a non-violent incident B) The victim was not an immediate threat to the police

 

On another note, when I first read this story and saw the name "Comstock", I thought of Bioshock: Infinite.

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If the cops wanted him to stop and if they must use guns they could of just shot the engine... 

 

Would a cop's standard firearm do that much to an engine though? Surely it would be a lot of rounds fired before something critical was hit, or the engine block was compromised...?

Or are you just suggesting something more along the lines of warning shots?

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Would a cop's standard firearm do that much to an engine block though?

Or are you just suggesting something more along the lines of warning shots?

 

Im pretty sure their firearms could of disabled the engine. 

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Would a cop's standard firearm do that much to an engine though? Surely it would be a lot of rounds fired before something critical was hit, or the engine block was compromised...?

Or are you just suggesting something more along the lines of warning shots?

Most rifles would, an AR-15 definitely would go through the engine block, not sure about a .40 cal handgun though.

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Im pretty sure their firearms could of disabled the engine. 

Most rifles would, an AR-15 definitely would go through the engine block, not sure about a .40 cal handgun though.

 

Oh that makes sense.

 

Anyway, sympathies to the father. Sucks to be him. 

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B) The victim was not an immediate threat to the police

 

Playing Devil's advocate here, but he rammed the police at the very least 3 times with the truck/trailer and prior to being shot he was running into the side of the police car based on the dash cam footage.  Is a 5,000lbs truck not a threat to people's safety?  There are still other ways this could've been handled (ie. kid pulling over initially or the cops calling off the pursuit), but given the way he was driving it's not hard to imagine the threat he posed to pedestrians.  I'm just curious if people would feel the same way had he killed someone in the crosswalk as he ran that red light.

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if you take away the story leading up to it and analyze the actual incident, the kid (from the sounds of it) was endangering peoples lives, I would have shot him too.

 But why kill when you could end it by shooting the engine?  Can't run over anyone if the car isn't moving. 

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if you take away the story leading up to it and analyze the actual incident, the kid (from the sounds of it) was endangering peoples lives, I would have shot him too.

True, I wasn't there, maybe they felt their lives, or the lives of others were actually in danger.  Sad story either way it goes though.

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True, I wasn't there, maybe they felt their lives, or the lives of others were actually in danger.  Sad story either way it goes though.

Theres dashcam footage. 

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 But why kill when you could end it by shooting the engine?  Can't run over anyone if the car isn't moving. 

take any of your guns, and try to shoot an engine and make it quit.  As with all gun myths and glories of everyone being Clint Eastwood, this isn't the movies...

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take any of your guns, and try to shoot an engine and make it quit.  As with all gun myths and glories of everyone being Clint Eastwood, this isn't the movies...

Shooting the engine out isn't a myth, its been done dozens of times in Iraq and Afghanistan... 

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The officers were using small caliber handguns, so there was absolutely no chance of disabling the vehicle by shooting out the big block engine of a heavy duty work truck.  In actuality, there was never really an opportunity to do so.  The sequence of events unfolded in only a matter of minutes.  Though I agree this is disturbing, and certainly the death of a 19 old boy a tragedy, however, it appears the officers didn't have a lot of options given circumstance.

 

He violently rammed the police vehicles on three separate occasions and threatened the lives of many innocent people with his reckless behavior.  Running through that red light at top speed, it's a miracle he didn't kill anyone.  The police only fired on him after they were exiting their patrol cars and he rammed them for the final time.  This act was clearly an attempt to harm the police officers. Both cruisers had stopped and his vehicle was pointed in the opposite direction; he could have driven off had that been his intent. From the video it appears he was bent on physically harming or killing the police officers.  For this he paid with his life.

 

Again, this is a real tragedy, but the boy brought it upon himself.  I do not believe the police were acting like "cowboys".  As a matter of fact, they were very cautious going through the red light and several stop signs.  They seemed to take every precaution to avoid injuring anyone.

 

Had the boy simply pulled over, this wouldn't have happened.  The father had already contacted the police and told them it was his son.  Since the father wasn't about to press criminal charges, the worst that could have happened was he could have been taken down to the station for a few hours and then released.

 

What a damned shame.  Sadly, the father will live with this guilt for the rest of his life, but honestly, he is not to blame.  This 19 year old boy made all the decisions that ended his life that day.

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The officers were using small caliber handguns, so there was absolutely no chance of disabling the vehicle by shooting out the big block engine of a heavy duty work truck.  In actuality, there was never really an opportunity to do so.  The sequence of events unfolded in only a matter of minutes.  Though I agree this is disturbing, and certainly the death of a 19 old boy a tragedy, however, it appears the officers didn't have a lot of options given circumstance.

 

He violently rammed the police vehicles on three separate occasions and threatened the lives of many innocent people with his reckless behavior.  Running through that red light at top speed, it's a miracle he didn't kill anyone.  The police only fired on him after they were exiting their patrol cars and he rammed them for the final time.  This act was clearly an attempt to harm the police officers. Both cruisers had stopped and his vehicle was pointed in the opposite direction; he could have driven off had that been his intent. From the video it appears he was bent on physically harming or killing the police officers.  For this he paid with his life.

 

Again, this is a real tragedy, but the boy brought it upon himself.  I do not believe the police were acting like "cowboys".  As a matter of fact, they were very cautious going through the red light and several stop signs.  They seemed to take every precaution to avoid injuring anyone.

 

Had the boy simply pulled over, this wouldn't have happened.  The father had already contacted the police and told them it was his son.  Since the father wasn't about to press criminal charges, the worst that could have happened was he could have been taken down to the station for a few hours and then released.

 

What a damned shame.  Sadly, the father will live with this guilt for the rest of his life, but honestly, he is not to blame.  This 19 year old boy made all the decisions that ended his life that day.

A lot if not most police cars carry shotguns. Killing an engine by gun fire isn't a myth, they could of stopped  the chase by not chasing him as well. they do it with bikers all the time. They could of decided to call it off.  Police chases end uneventfully all the time, California seems to be a hot bed for police chases and most of the ones i've seen on the news ends without the person being shot. 

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Everyone involved should have made better decisions.  The cops could have done many things that don't involve shooting at the driver.  The kid, well, pretty much all of it was a bad decision.  The Dad could have made better decisions too.  Not only did he lie to the cops, but the idea of calling them in the first place doesn't make sense to me. 

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Im pretty sure their firearms could of disabled the engine. 

 

Absolutely not.  The police were carrying  9 mm handguns.  This might penetrate the the engine compartment but not the block itself.  This is especially so considering that the truck was an industrial style work truck - hence its ability to haul lawn mowers on the trailer.  This is not even to consider that there was never any time to do this.

 

In Iraq and Afghanistan vehicles are frequently stopped with high powered machine guns.  The guns used to disable them are typically 30 or 50 caliber weapons mounted atop a humvee.  The blocks are shot out (and usually the passengers too) because the assumption is that the vehicle is being used as a vehicle borne improvised device (V-IED).  Killing the driver would have little effect if the vehicle blows up the check point and the soldiers.

 

An AR-15 fires a standard NATO 5.56 mm round.  It can puncture a vehicle, and possibly take out a small block engine, but even that is uncertain.  There is almost no hope of it taking out a big block - unless you get off an extremely lucky shot.

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A lot if not most police cars carry shotguns. Killing an engine by gun fire isn't a myth, they could of stopped  the chase by not chasing him as well. they do it with bikers all the time. They could of decided to call it off.  Police chases end uneventfully all the time, California seems to be a hot bed for police chases and most of the ones i've seen on the news ends without the person being shot. 

 

I am career military and know a lot about ballistics.  No chance a shot gun can take out a big block engine.  I agree that there was lots that could have been done - hindsight is 20/20.  However, it is the job of the police to prevent or mitigate harm to the citizenry to the extent possible.  We pay them to pursue bad people looking to do bad things to the innocent.  They didn't have the insight of the circumstances that led up to this tragedy - they just got the report of a stolen vehicle.  Then the boy backed into the cruiser and initiated the chase.  It was his actions alone that led to the tragic ending.

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'Merica!

Where if you want something done, you do it WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY overboard.

Sucks to be him, guess the dad learned a lesson here too. 

 

Yeah. He learned to hate the police and never ever call them again.

 

Not sure that's the lesson he was looking for.

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Absolutely not.  The police were carrying  9 mm handguns.  This might penetrate the the engine compartment but not the block itself.  This is especially so considering that the truck was an industrial style work truck - hence its ability to haul lawn mowers on the trailer.  This is not even to consider that there was never any time to do this.

 

 

Just want to point out that even a frickin' Smart Car could tow lawnmowers on a trailer... Doesn't have to be an "industrial type work truck" for that "magical" ability...

 

16kthc6.jpg

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Just want to point out that even a frickin' Smart Car could tow lawnmowers on a trailer... Doesn't have to be an "industrial type work truck" for that "magical" ability...

 

 

 

Uh.  Watch the video.  It is an industrial style work truck.  It has a big block V8 engine. And a picture of a Smart Car hooked up to an RV does not mean said car can actually haul the camper.  It surely would burn the engine up in no time - and absolutely would not be able to pull it up any grade.

 

I can take a picture of my French bulldog hooked up to the Budweiser beer wagon - but that does not make her a Clydesdale.

 

Find someplace else to troll.

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Absolutely not.  The police were carrying  9 mm handguns.  This might penetrate the the engine compartment but not the block itself.  This is especially so considering that the truck was an industrial style work truck - hence its ability to haul lawn mowers on the trailer.  This is not even to consider that there was never any time to do this.

 

In Iraq and Afghanistan vehicles are frequently stopped with high powered machine guns.  The guns used to disable them are typically 30 or 50 caliber weapons mounted atop a humvee.  The blocks are shot out (and usually the passengers too) because the assumption is that the vehicle is being used as a vehicle borne improvised device (V-IED).  Killing the driver would have little effect if the vehicle blows up the check point and the soldiers.

 

An AR-15 fires a standard NATO 5.56 mm round.  It can puncture a vehicle, and possibly take out a small block engine, but even that is uncertain.  There is almost no hope of it taking out a big block - unless you get off an extremely lucky shot.

 

Completely off-topic, but this is quite interesting so thanks for the insight. One question - when you shoot out the engine block, does the car actually stop any sooner? I was just thinking that even with the engine shot out, it'd keep on rolling and you'd have to blow up the car for it to stop. 

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