An officer died of a heart attack while attacking Virgilio Aguilar Méndez; now Aguilar Méndez is facing murder charges.

  • ALQ@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I don’t even understand how this could qualify for felony murder (which is what I’m assuming they’re going for; the article only somewhat talked about the charges), since it was natural causes and not homicide. Sure, you’ve got an argument for the first element of resisting an officer with violence, but the second element isn’t met; no one was killed.

    Fucking bass ackwards Florida.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Exactly. It’s Florida and he’s indigenous. That’s the only explanation here. He did nothing wrong except struggle. There’s no indication he physically harmed any of them. The cop claimed he went for a knife, but the knife he had on him was a small pocket knife that couldn’t have hurt the cop much even if he was attacked with it. Unless he started tasering the cop back while handcuffed in the squad car, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t responsible.

      • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        This whole situation is bullshit for that kid, but that knife absolutely could harm or kill someone. It has a blade over 2", which is a smaller blade, but more than enough to kill. A box cutter is enough to kill someone and most of those have about an inch of exposure. You don’t need a Ka-bar to kill someone, multiple major arteries and plenty of veins are accessible with a 2" knife for most bodies.

      • ALQ@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I don’t disagree; I was just using the verbiage from the Florida statute.

    • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one
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      9 months ago

      It’s called “Felony Murder”. The New Yorker had a fantastic article about how bullshit the whole idea of “Felony Murder”.

      This shock was swiftly followed by another. As a result of the crash, which all parties agreed was unintentional, two men stood accused of murdering his father and a friend who was cycling with him. One of those charged, twenty-five-year-old Sadik Baxter, had never laid eyes on the victims. At the moment of impact, he had been miles away, in handcuffs.

      Recently, Ian spoke with me about the case while caring for his newborn daughter in Brooklyn; as we talked, he sometimes ran his hand down a thick beard he’d grown in homage to his dad. “It’s truly one of the cruellest ideas in the American legal system,” he said of felony murder. “And most people don’t even know it exists.”

    • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      In some states you can be charged for the death of someone during the commission of a felony. It is meant to be used for something like you and three people rob a bank and one of your crew shoots a guard. Even though you didn’t pull the trigger, you catch the charge.

      You can be charged with a felony resisting arrest if the cop is hurt while arresting you. So they are trying to extend it to the cop having a heart attack due to the strain he exerted while the guy was resisting arrest.

      Bullshit application of the law, cop was being a dick, kid shouldn’t have been here but didn’t deserve none of this.

      • ExLisper@linux.community
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        9 months ago

        It is meant to be used for something like you and three people rob a bank and one of your crew shoots a guard.

        It’s worse than that. You can be charged with murder for borrowing a car to those three, even if you didn’t took part in the robbery.