It’s a known fact that Police officers face many challenges in the line of duty. These challenges include: saving lives, traffic stops to help with public safety, handling thieves, and much more. When serving the public a traffic stop is pretty common, many people speed up and end up with tickets for doing so, thus leading to paying fines.
A man was recently stopped for speeding and took it to a drastic level that ended in blood. 35-years-old Ashad Russell was minding his own business walking one day when he noticed something very alarming. He was on Interstate 75 when he noticed a sheriff’s vehicle pulled over with a deputy lying on the ground being attacked by a man. Dean Bardes who is Lee County’s First Class Sheriff’s Deputy was being punched repeatedly while pinned on the ground.
The attacker was 53-year-old Edward Strother. Deputy Barbes had pulled over Strother for speeding, making Strother very upset and taking matters into a violent rage thus attacking the deputy.
Russell, a passerby who carries a gun with a concealed carry license stepped out towards the deputy and attacker to help, with his gun at his side. Deputy Barbes noticed Russell and the gun at his side, he quickly told Russell to shoot Strother. Russell told Strother to get off the deputy repeatedly with no success. This led Russell to shoot Strother in the neck three times, and shortly after, he was pronounced dead.
Now, according to the latest development of the case, the State Attorney’s office ruled that the shooting was legally justified because Russell had a legal right to stand his ground under Florida law.
The Attorney’s office also added that Russell used “defensive force” because he had “a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm” to the deputy.
“Our agency review is closed, and no further action shall be taken by this office based upon the facts presented by this investigation and the applicable law,” concluded the memo put out by the State Attorney’s Office.
On the other side of the story, Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott praised Russell in a post on Facebook:
I thank the hero that recognized the imminent threat, rushed to Deputy Bardes’ aid, and ultimately stopped that threat. In a day and age where race is a near instant focus for media and other pundits in police incidents, the fact is that this hero happens to be a man of color who stopped another man of color from further harming or killing a white cop; thereby reminding us that black lives matter, blue lives matter, and indeed all life matters.
After the incident, Russell’s gun was taken by authorities as evidence, but a replacement was straightaway given to Russell by a local gun store called Shoot Straight, and he is free to regain the ownership of the old gun if he chose, the Daily Mail reported.
Watch the video footage here: U.S Lawshield/Youtube
Sources: OpposingViews, Daily Mail, The Washington Post
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