West Virginia Police Officer Fired For Not Shooting Armed Suspect

The United States is strongly divided over killings by police officers, especially those of young black men. in news that is stranger than fiction, a police officer from West Virginia was fired this year for not shooting an armed black man.

Stephen Mader, 25,is a Marine veteran and ex-member of the Weirton, West Virginia Police Department. On May 6 Mader answered a call about a man threatening to kill himself.

Upon arrival, the suspect Ronald D. "R.J." Williams Jr. told Mader to shoot him. Williams Jr. had a gun at his side, pointed toward the floor. 

Identifying a "suicide by cop" situation, which is where a suspect is threatening toward a police offer in order to be shot, Mader chose to de-escalate the situation instead of shooting.

"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." Mader said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Two additional officers arrived on the scene. Williams Jr. walked toward them while waving his gun, at which point one of the newly arrived officers shot and killed him.

The gun was later found to be unloaded. Mader believes his previous colleague made the right decision since he had a different set of information to assess - Williams Jr. was no longer pointing the gun at the floor and it's unclear whether the additional officers knew whether the call was solely for self-harm.

As per protocol in an officer-involved shooting, all three offers were placed on a short administrative leave. On June 7, Mader was terminated because he "failed to eliminate a threat."

West Virginia is an "at-will" employment state, so Mader has no legal recourse to get his job back. He is working on getting his commercial license to drive trucks.