After seeing the video’s on Scott Olsen I felt compelled to detail what I viewed. Sending this to the police seemed kind of pointless since they are the ones that did it, you on the other hand seem to be a much better choice.
October 25, 2011 at 14th Street and Broadway in Downtown Oakland, California, Scott Olsen was shot and grenaded by the police. Scott was a protester in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Scott was doing what any veteran might think to be the right thing to do, stand in harm’s way between the threat that confronts them and the potential victims of that threat. This is a soldierly thing to do, protect the innocent. Stand between those that would be hurt and those that threaten and in this case the threat was the police. From the police’s point of view Scott was one of the closest targets only about 15 feet away from the police line. It appears that while Scott was standing in harm’s way a policeman took aim and shot Scott’s in the face. After being shot, Scott went down to ground. When a small group of people came to assist Scott, the same policeman or the one standing right next to him threw a flash grenade that appeared to land right on top of Scott and in the middle of the people trying to assist him. Scott was clearly in distress on the ground and visible to the police before the flash grenade was thrown on top of him as he lay wounded on the ground. There are two video’s that I have seen one is an aerial view from a helicopter and the other from the ground. The first video http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587140/index.html in this video you can see that Scott was one of the last to retreat after the initial flash grenades were thrown into the crowd and so this may have been the reason he was targeted (last man standing so to speak), on further investigation it appears he was shot just as he tried to retreat or as he was retreating, he took 2 running steps before he went to the ground. The location of his wound could help to determine whether he had started to move away from the police line or whether he was hit as he faced the police. The second video shows the flash grenade going off right in the middle of the group of people that were trying to help him. This footage came right at the end of the video clip titled “Raw Video” Ground footage of Occupy Oakland http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587140/index.html
Video number one: The aerial video. All but a few of protesters from the Occupy Oakland demonstrators had disbursed after the initial shock grenades were thrown into the crowd, one of the few left was Scott Olsen he stood 15 feet away from the police line and barricade. After the initial shock grenade attack one of the protesters picked up one of the tear gas canisters and threw it back over the police line, the trail of smoke left in the air by the tear gas is an absolute time marker to the moment when Scott was shot within one second and can be compared to other videos to mark the exact moment. Scott’s standing location was almost dead center in the middle of the intersection facing the police line and barricade. Scott can be observed running parallel to the police line at 44 seconds in this aerial view. This was the moment he was shot at 44 seconds into the video. It appears he was running at the time he was shot, my best guess is that he was in mid stride when he was hit, but there is the possibility that he was shot before he moved from his stationary position, I think this unlikely though considering the kind of wound he received, it is more likely he start to run first. He fell about 10-12 feet from where he was initially standing. He had taken about two running steps before he hit the ground. This would also account for his wound which appears to be more on the left side of his face. At the time he was shot the view was clear between the police line and Scott’s location 15 feet away. Frame by frame the video shows Scott was down 45 seconds into the video and dropped 44 seconds into the video.
The trail of canister smoke that is the time marker was tossed back over the police line at 41 second into the aerial view, at 45 seconds Scott was down on the ground.
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587140/index.html the aerial video
Video number two: The ground video. This video shows the policeman who took the shot. There appears to be no confusion about where or what the officer was aiming at. He was in a resting position with his elbow draped over the police barricade. His location would have put him directly in front of Scott in the middle of the intersection, when he took the shot. He was the only officer in or near that position with a raised rifle. Once the officer took the shot the officer pulled back as if to conceal himself and the fact he took the shot, he pulled back away from the barricade and lowered his rifle stepping to the side and behind another officer. Scott was shot 22 seconds into this video. A demonstrator, blond haired man, appears to have a camera rolling that could show further video evidence of the shooting. This blond hair man held his camera over the crowd at the moment of the shooting and could present even more compelling evidence. It also appears that the same officer or the officer standing right next to him lobbed an additional shock grenade right on top of Scott and the group of protesters that had gathered to help him. This canister or grenade was thrown knowing a man was down and others were trying to assist him. The canister or grenade toss was a purposeful underhanded toss into this small group standing 15 feet away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=youtu.bethe complete ground video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_detailpage#t=74sthe truncated ground video
There really only appears to be one question left to answer. What was the name of the officer that shot Scott Olsen?
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