Had Atmore P.D. terminated the chase once they crossed into Florida, this tragic situation would have been avoided, and Williams could have been arrested on another day for the traffic crimes.

Now consider Atmore P.D. has chased into Florida on other occasions without reporting to Florida authorities that such an incident was in progress. For example, the high speed motorcycle chase that went down Greenland Road not to long ago. And what was this chase centered around? A traffic infraction, but this time the cycle got away. If you think that it doesn’t happen, listen to your scanner sometime.

When one decides engage in a pursuit (and in this case, all those on duty), someone, usually a supervisor, has to weigh the costs against the benefits of the pursuit and determine whether a continued is justified, because the public deserves to be safe from overly aggressive police action. If you think that police aggressiveness doesn’t happen, look at the recent Birmingham incident, where five police officers were recently fired.

http://www.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/birmingham_police_officers_fired_for_videotaped_beating/73400/

Unfortunately for Williams, the Atmore officers’ bullets hit their mark from behind, but what about the passenger; did he deserve to be shot at too? After all he was only a passenger, and what if there was a two year old child in the car at the time? “What if” can go on all day, but these are presented as food for thought.

Now with that said, should Williams have run? No, of course not! But did deserve to die at the hands of the Atmore police? No, because after all, this started out over a minor traffic offense according to the Chief of Police in his initial report to NorthEscambia.com.

Was it reasonable for the police to attempt to stop him? Yes, but attempts to stop him must be tempered with reasonableness! In this case, there is an almost 20 minute chase where no secondary indication or call came in to the police about this phantom “shots fired call” or for that matter, any other report of a gun shot wound or other injury related to the initial call during this time.

The decision to continue a chase is a critical supervisory responsibility, and in his or her absence, that burden usually shifts to the senior officer present or the officer initiating the pursuit. He or she must constantly seek information to determine if the continued pursuit is warranted.

With was has been reported, is it reasonable to believe that all the Atmore Police had on the driver was minor traffic offenses? Yes, there is no other indication that a forcible felony had just occurred, was about to occur, or was actually in progress.

Now couple all this with the fact that Atmore was crossing and chasing into Florida for the only known offenses of minor traffic violations; Atmore P.D. should have called the chase, period, because there is no continued justification to pursue across the state line.

Lastly, if officers had called the chase after a reasonable amount of time (10 minutes chasing in and around Atmore would tend to meet the adequate time to determine if the initial “shots fired call” held any water), they would not have put themselves in harms way (danger) some 20 minutes later in front of Williams’ car down in Walnut Hill, where now officers are using Williams’ actions as a thinly veiled attempt to justify killing him.

Like it or not, these are the hard questions and legal standards upon which Atmore P.D. will be judged.

This is a tragedy not just for Danny’s family and friends, but also for the officers involved.

PLEASE, lets stop the bashing and pointing fingers! Let the family and friends be able to lay their loved to rest in peace without all the gossip and BS!

I’m praying for everyone who has been involved or touched by this.

Jimmy