Woman Shot by Off-Duty Officer Had Marijuana, Alcohol in System
Woman Shot by Off-Duty Officer Had Marijuana, Alcohol in System - FOX6 San Diego
A woman shot by an off-duty San Diego police officer in Oceanside last month had a blood-alcohol level of nearly twice the legal limit and also had marijuana in her system, according to search warrants made public Monday.Oceanside police investigators have determined that a near-collision on Old Grove Road evidently led to the March 15 confrontation during which off- duty San Diego police Officer Franklin White opened fire on 27-year-old Rachel Silva’s car, wounding her and her 8-year-old son.
White and his wife were southbound in their black Mercury sedan when, according to a witness, Silva steered her Honda out of a gas station directly into their path, forcing the officer to swerve sharply to avoid a crash.
White, 28, then continued down the road for a short distance and pulled into a parking lot outside a Lowe’s store, according to Oceanside police investigators.
As he did so, Silva, whose son was seated next to her, reportedly tailgated him, revved her engine and yelled, prompting the 911 call from White’s wife, a Carlsbad police dispatcher, Oceanside police have said.
The off-duty officer stopped his car, and Silva pulled alongside. White responded by displaying a pistol and backing his car away as Silva, in turn, made an emergency call, reporting a man with a gun, according to police.
She then reversed her car, as well, sideswiping White’s in the process. At that point, the officer opened fire through his closed driver’s side window, shattering it, police said.
The first bullet went through the darkly tinted front passenger window of Silva’s vehicle, striking her son in the left leg, and four others pierced her windshield. Two of those slugs struck her in the upper right arm.
Silva and her child both spent about five days in a hospital.
The night of the shooting, Silva was driving on a suspended license and facing a drunken driving charge in connection with a prior arrest. Police ordered her blood taken at the hospital.
So let me get this straight. A drunk woman is driving on a suspended license with her eight-year-old. She whips out of a gas station and nearly hits the car of an off-duty cop. She has a bit of road-rage and follows the cop. Suddenly the cop, who she doesn’t know is a cop, flashes a handgun. Drunk woman panics and tries to escape, sideswipes cops car, so he begins opening fire?
Now, how exactly does the marijuana have anything to do with this? You had me at “twice the legal limit” for alcohol and “suspended license”. Finding marijuana “in her system” just means she smoked pot sometime within the past few weeks; it doesn’t turn her into a road-raging demolition derby driver (that’s the alcohol talking).
As for this cop, if he feels his life is threatened, he absolutely has the right to open fire. But he’s in his closed, parked car and she couldn’t have possibly built up any serious speed pulling away from the man threatening her with a gun. And at that short distance, could the cop not have seen the eight-year-old? Do you think maybe he should have flashed his badge instead of his gun?
Tags: California, San Diego
