The police beat: Maryland cops shooting hostage taking bank robber is shown live on TV. Detroit’s chief releases video of shootout at police station.

While we focus almost exclusively on fire and EMS here, this is one of those days that dramatic video involving law enforcement from two separate parts of the country is front and center.

The video above is today’s botched bank robbery in Maryland. Police from Prince George’s County and Takoma Park quickly found themselves face to face with the gunman walking out the door of the bank holding a female hostage. She was able to break free when the robber was tripped up by a snow bank. It gave police a chance to shoot the gunman. He died. A Prince George’s County Police officer was wounded in the leg, apparently from a bullet that ricocheted.

TV stations in the Washington area were in the breaking news mode as this all happened. It was one of those moments where someone being shot and killed was seen live on television. Since then the news operations, as far as we can tell, are only showing the edited chopper video on the air. It stops before the gunman falls to the ground. The exception is WTTG-TV, which has put the complete raw video on its website. Click here for that video.

You can read more about the robbery, here. Click here for a police news conference. Earlier fire department briefing about a suspected bomb left by the robber.

The other video is from the shootout inside a Detroit police station five days ago. It shows Lamar Moore entering the Northwest District on January 23 and ambushing the officers. Moore was killed in this gun battle and four police officers are recovering from their wounds. The 68 second video, showing two camera angles, was released today by the Detroit Police Department.

The video opens with a message from Police Chief Ralph Godbee. Chief Godbee explains the decision to release this video. The chief called it a commitment to transparency and to show citizens the heroism of his officers. The chief also believes it will of help in the training of police officers.

Below is some of the police radio traffic during the shootout that was posted on YouTube by FirefighterDispatch.

Here is a description of the video by Gina Damron of the Detroit Free Press:

In one view Cmdr. Brian Davis is seen walking up the the desk, where Modreci Draper, owner of a shoe repair business who had come to the station to shine officers’ shoes, is talking to Officer David Anderson.

In the camera view at the door, Moore is seen walking into the building, but a gun is not visible. Then you can see him walk close to the desk.

Davis is talking to Sgt. Ray Saati, with his back initially turned to Moore. Draper leans down, wiping salt from Anderson’s shoes, he told the Free Press Thursday. Suddenly, there is a blast and Anderson falls away into a corridor, with only his feet visible in the frame.

Moore shoots down another hallway, where Sgt. Carrie Schulz is shot in her bullet-proof vest. From that corridor, Sgts. Mike Ingels and James Kirkland begin shooting at Moore, who backs up, according to police.

Behind the desk, Davis takes Saati’s gun and he and Officer Theodore Jackson begin shooting over the desk at Moore, who hurls himself over the counter.

Moore moves toward Davis, who extends his right arm, shooting at point-blank range with the gunman. Moore shoots and hits Davis’ hand and Davis is also hit in the back. He takes cover, while Moore moves to the other side of the desk area. At this point, according to police, Moore is mortally wounded.

Davis throws a trash can at Moore, who staggers and falls into chairs.

Also on STATter911 …

• A snapshot of Detroit EMS: Pictures appear to show supervisors sleeping on the job. Wife of EMS chief being investigated. – May 2, 2010
• Field amputation of engineer’s arm following train collision. Video & details from Fontana, California. – September 10, 2010
• Detroit fire documentary getting caught up in aftermath of police chief scandal. Mayor’s office has to set policy. It’s an image thing. – August 9, 2010
• Video: Car crashes into Hooters & catches fire. The story from St. Louis. – January 22, 2011

Posted by dave statter

Police: Officer Made Up Story About Shooting Near High School

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A police officer in Los Angeles who claimed he was shot while patrolling near a high school has now been arrested for making up the story, authorities said.

Officer Jeff Stenroos of the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department had said he was shot in the chest on January 19 in the west San Fernando Valley. He said the shooting happened when he got out of his squad car to check on a man peering into parked vehicles near the El Camino High School.

The alleged shooting prompted an hours-long lockdown of several schools as police scoured the area looking for the shooter.

In the following days, authorities released a sketch of the alleged gunman, and the reward for information grew to $100,000.

But Thursday night, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Stenroos had been arrested on a felony count of filing a false police report.

"The current state of the investigation refutes Stenroos' initial account of the incident and we are now certain that there is no outstanding suspect in this shooting," he said in a statement.

GO HERE to read more.

American Missionary Killed by Gunman in Mexico, Husband Says

A U.S. missionary working in Mexico who brought his mortally wounded wife to the border told authorities in the United States that gunmen in a pickup truck shot her in the head, police in Texas say. Nancy Davis, 59, died in a South Texas hospital Wednesday about 90 minutes after her husband drove the couple's truck against traffic across the Pharr International Bridge, according to a statement issued by the Pharr Police Department. The husband relayed to Texas authorities and U.S. Customs agents a frantic episode of the couple being fired upon in Mexico and then flooring their truck at top speed to border. Police described the couple as missionaries who travel extensively into Mexico. The scene echoed one described four months ago by an American tourist, who said her husband was gunned down by Mexican pirates on a border lake as the couple tried fleeing on Jet Skis...more

Posted by Frank DuBois

Congressman Jim Moran Talks to Arab TV

And denounces those who oppose Obama's agenda as racists. From Politico:

Speaking to Arab television network Alhurra, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said Republicans made big gains in November in part because “a lot of people in this country … don’t want to be governed by an African-American.”

Even more objectionable to some Americans, he said, is that Obama is a black president “who is inclusive, who is liberal, who wants to spend money on everyone and who wants to reach out to include everyone in our society — that’s a basic philosophical clash.”

Moran’s remarks came Tuesday in an interview conducted after Obama delivered his State of the Union speech. Democrats, Moran said, lost for “the same reason the Civil War Happened in the United States … the Southern states, particularly the slaveholding states, didn’t want to see a president who was opposed to slavery.” Virginia, of course, is one of those Southern, formerly slaveholding states....

Thus, Moran is promoting white guilt.

The Civil War is over. Sure, racism still exists in the United States. There's no denying that fact. But to attribute the results of the 2010 elections exclusively to racism is inaccurate and denial of the will of the American people as they exercised that will at the ballot box last November. Besides, the district from which Moran runs for office is overwhelmingly white (liberal), and Democrat Moran got re-elected. Or maybe Moran has decided that Virginia, particularly Northern Virginia is not part of the South - never mind that slaves were indeed held in bondage here in Northern Virginia.

And what the hell is Moran doing talking to Arab television, anyway? Following Obama's lead, I suppose. Obama spoke with al-Arabiya in one of his first interviews after taking office in January 2009.

Here in Northern Virginia, Congressman Moran sometimes runs for office without opposition. And when an opponent does challenge Moran for that particular seat in Congress, Moran trounces him. Never mind Moran's frequent off-the-cuff remarks:

Moran has gotten in trouble for his off-the-cuff remarks in the past. In 2007, he alleged that the “extraordinarily powerful” pro-Israel lobby played a major role in promoting the U.S. war in Iraq. A strong supporter of his district’s Muslim community, Moran faced criticism from Jewish groups in 2003 for saying that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was visiting Washington “probably seeking a warrant from President Bush to kill at will with weapons we’ve paid for.”

Moran is standing by his recent statements about Obama and racist America.

posted by Always On Watch

Financial Commission Issues Useless, Partisan Report

This is what happens when you allow partisan hacks to conduct an investigation:

Taxpayers got the short end of the stick on Thursday when Phil Angelides, Democratic chairman of the taxpayer-funded Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, released the panel's final report on the causes of the Great Recession of 2008.

Rather than provide the bipartisan view of the origins of the financial crisis, as mandated by Congress, the panel split along partisan lines because of Angelides' refusal to incorporate the views of Republican members. So, instead of one consensus report, there are three competing assessments (that of the majority, a minority report signed by three Republican members, and an individual dissent by Commissioner Peter Wallison).

Commissioner Douglas Holtz-Eakin told The Examiner that the Republican commissioners would provide edits to drafts of the report, only to have returned new drafts that still didn't reflect their changes, only "to be asked at the last minute to sign off." Vice Chairman Bill Thomas, former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Examiner that he was exasperated by such tactics: "I was not aware that the material we thought had been cooperatively agreed to wasn't in [thereport ] because it didn't pass muster." In fact, Thomas said, Angelides "went through by himself and made changes which were not known until the document was presented to the commission." Holtz-Eakin added that "the fact that we have to guess at what the process [to write the report] was shows you exactly the problem with the commission."

More than 700 interviews were conducted by FCIC staff, most of which had no input from commissioners on the questions to be asked. In fact, the commissioners had no idea many of them were happening at all, having not been invited to sit in on important meetings such as those with executives of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or with Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Larry Summers. The obstructions didn't stop there, either. A commission staff member who requested anonymity told The Examiner that interactions with commissioners were rare. Commissioners, in turn, spoke of the difficulty of not having access to staffers.

by Rick Moore