Maine Cop Kills Unarmed Boy

In Waldoboro, Maine, police officer Zachary Curtis attempts to arrest belligerent teenager Gregori Jackson, who is a passenger in a car that Curtis just pulled over for a traffic violation. Somehow, after a scuffle, the young man pulls loose and flees into the woods next to the road. Officer Curtis pursues the suspect, and manages to shoot him several times in the head and chest, killing the unarmed eighteen-year-old on the spot.

The local paper reports that

Curtis was a reserve officer who has served with Waldoboro police since February 2006. Curtis had received 100 hours of training.

Make of that what you will, but it looks for all he world like a boy is dead because a rookie officer relied on testosterone instead of training, and on bullets rather than common sense. Tragic no matter how you slice it.

Comments

[Tom R.]

Careful on the criticism of the officer.

Every struggle an officer gets into is an armed struggle, because the officer has a gun. If the perpetrator gets ahold of the gun, which is what most struggles devolve into, a fight for control of a weapon, there is a greater than 80% probablility that the perpetrator will murder the officer with the officer's own gun.

The perpetrator MAY not have been armed going into the fight, but the officer has a baton, mace, pistol, knife, and possibly other weapons that if the perpetrator was able to obtain control of, would mean deadly force would be justified.

Wait for the details to come out.

The take away - don't resist arrest, don't assault police officers. Believe me, anyone willing to assault a police officer to begin with has something in his head that he can WIN the fight. And what do you think "win" means when fighting someone who has a gun?

That kid made a stupid mistake that cost him his life. Too bad. It was his mistake and he made it. I have been to too many police-officer funerals to care much about the perps anymore. All that kid had to do was sit in the car like his two buddies who walked away.

Found your site through Malkin's link to the Ali interview from Reason. Was the interview conducted in Engliah or Dutch? Just curious.

[john m.]

Hey, I can't pass up the opportunity to point out the obvious in this case, which I am still interested in. The cop had limited training. He was young (24). He didn't wait for backup. The kid was intoxicated from drinking, not loaded up on PCP. The cop had some training. What training did the kid have? How much did he weigh and how good a fighter was he?
I just don't buy the cop's story. According to the cop's testimony the kid was hiding under a log and then the kid hit him with a log. Then, according to the cop, the kid was on top of him, strangling him. I think it's bullshit.
Cops like to say they go with their gut instinct, which I'm sure helps. My gut instinct tells me this cop is a lying sack of shit.
He was all hot-to-trot about getting into some action, because how much action is there in Waldoboro, Maine? Not much! He probably watches action movies and cops shows and when he drove around in his cruiser he wasn't looking for traffic violations. He was looking for trouble.
Rambo-Cop shot an unarmed KID.

[Kyle]

Greg Jackson did not weigh more than 160 pounds and he was drunk. The officer shot him with no reason what so ever. If he cannot get a 160 pound 18 year old intoxicated kid off of him then he should not be on the police force. He is just a very trigger happy man and should not be allowed to wear a badge again.

[jesse h.]

look...the cop that killed greg shood be fuckin hung for wut he did...what happend pretty much sums the word 'bullshit' up.
sumthing needs to change with the untouchable police force and well all around government...this county is going to hell...
zach curtis....if only my friends and i cood have a moment where we get sum choice words out with u, u son of a bitch.

[GOD]

Zachary Curtis you and Gregori were not alone in those woods that night.I saw everything that happend.You will pay for the murder and the lies that you told.You will not get away with this.One day Greg.

[Kyle]

Greg Jackson was one of my best friends and for that trigger happy son of a bitch Zachery Curtis I hope he gets whats coming to him.