The Progressive Puppy: Another trigger-happy Texas cop, another black man shot.
A 23-year old man, Robert Tolan, pulls into his own driveway in an upscale neighborhood in Bellaire, Texas. He and his brother get out of the vehicle and walk toward their house.
They're laughing and talking, it's dark outside - and suddenly a spotlight hits the men and they are accosted by a stranger who accuses them of stealing the car. There is an altercation. The stranger pulls a gun and starts firing at the men.
The stranger is a Bellaire police sergeant. He is white. The brothers are black, one of whom owns the vehicle that the officer thought - thought - might have been stolen.
In fact, the vehicle is registered to the man the cop just gunned down.
From the Houston Chronicle: A Bellaire man remains hospitalized this morning after he was shot outside his home by a police officer who incorrectly thought he was in a stolen car, officials said. Relatives of the wounded man, who is black, said they believe race played a role in the shooting. The shooting happened about 2 a.m. when a 2004 Nissan Xterra pulled up to a home in the 800 block of Woodstock near Evergreen... "It's a typical case of racial profiling," said Mike Morris, Tolan's uncle. He said Robert Tolan and his brother, the other man getting out of the car, didn't realize they were dealing with a police officer because a spotlight was trained on them. Tolan — who lives at his parents' home that county records show is worth more than $300,000 — was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital, police said.
The young man's father, Bobby Tolan, is a former professional baseball player for the Cincinnati Reds. Tolan says of his wife: "She's very upset. We could have lost our son." (Their son is currently in stable condition at the hospital.) Bellaire Assistant Police Chief Byron Holloway insists that his officers do not engage in racial profiling. Still, you gotta wonder... If two young white males had been getting out of their car and going up to a 300K home, would this policeman have been so anxious to confront them? Wouldn't he have checked the license plate number to make sure it was the stolen vehicle? The incident is being investigated by the Harris County District Attorney's Office. The (shooter's) officer's name has not been released.