Hattip maxim pistol3/8/2023 ![]() In this case, Mader chose to let the man walk, perhaps rightly so given what he saw. It’s a truism that in life it is important to have a plan to kill everyone you meet - but also to have one to let them walk away. It sounds as though Mader was trying to do his job to the highest level of his own ability, even at considerable personal risk, something that we surely want of all our law enforcement officers. This is a very unfortunate case all-around. It’s a shame it happened the way it did, but, I don’t think they did anything wrong.” All they know is is waving a gun at them. Mader agrees with that decision as well: “They did not have the information I did…. Mader was still a probationary employee in an ‘at-will’ state, and had little legal recourse to fight the termination.Īround the same time, the WPD announced that their own investigation had concluded that the other officers’ shooting of Williams had been justified given what was known to them. On June 7, Mader received a hand-delivered letter advising him that he had been terminated because my not shooting Williams he had “failed to eliminate a threat”. ![]() Shortly afterward, Weirton Police Chief Rob Alexander advised Mader: “We’re putting you on administrative leave and we’re going to do an investigation to see if you are going to be an officer here. Williams in the back of the head just behind his right ear, killing him. Williams walked toward them waving his gun - later found to be unloaded - between them and Mr. I knew it was a suicide-by-cop” situation.īut just then, two other Weirton officers arrived on the scene, Mr. “I thought I was going to be able to talk to him and deescalate it. “I told him, ‘Put down the gun,’ and he’s like, ‘Just shoot me.’ And I told him, ‘I’m not going to shoot you brother.’ Then he starts flicking his wrist to get me to react to it. Williams’ car parked on the street, said he then “began to use my calm voice.” Mader recalled, noting the silver handgun was in the man’s right hand, hanging at his side and pointed at the ground. ![]() “I saw then he had a gun, but it was not pointed at me,” Mr. He training had undergone as a Marine to look at “the whole person” in deciding if someone was a terrorist, as well as his situational police academy training, kicked in and he did not shoot. ![]() Based on his prior experience in the Marines, Mader concluded that he could talk Williams down.Īs Sean Hammill reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: As it happened, the 25-year-old Mader is a four-year Marine Corps veteran, having served as an infantry mortarman and IDD ( Improvised Explosive Device Detector Dog) handler in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, who after returning to the States sought a role in Law Enforcement and hired as an officer by the Weirton P.D. When Mader arrived, responding to the call in the early morning hours of May 6, he found himself confronting an armed man. Williams told her he was going to get his handgun from his car and make police shoot him.” ![]() When she told him she called 911 and police were coming, she said Mr. Williams apparently visited Gilmer’s home in May, and at some point afterward Gilmer called 911, advising them that Williams “was holding a knife to his throat and threatening to harm himself. ![]()
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