Monica Kochelee

What a horrible, sad, mess the local news has been this weekend. I’ve only heard bits and pieces, and tried to read up a little bit on the Internet through the Washington Post. Apparently last week a man was arrested and charged with killing a police officer. The arrest report says that the suspect was driving a truck and ran down (and dragged) a police officer, who died as a result of being run over and dragged.

The suspect was arrested and placed in an isolated cell, apart from other prisoners, in a jail that has had a bad reputation for lots of problems going on in the jail. While in isolation, the suspect was strangled, and his neck broken. It APPEARS that a police officer MIGHT have killed the suspect. Now all kinds of terrible things are happening, investigations by different agencies, etc. The medical examiner DID declare the suspect’s death a homicide, so someone is going to have to pay.

(The subject of vigilante justice is NOT being discussed here.)

IF the person who killed the suspect WAS in fact a police officer, I think it is a terrible thing on several levels. I don’t know if Maryland has a death penalty, but I would say that the police officer will be caught and at least sent to jail. Police officers might not last very long in jail, other inmates might kill him! So, for the life of one suspect, two police officers are dead. And the family of the dead suspect are naturally very upset and want justice for the dead suspect. What a mess!