Deputy Dean Bardes demands passerby shoot driver beating him: Was a driver’s shooting death warranted after what many argued was a life and death situation?
Debate has swelled after reports that a passerby ‘saved’ the life of a police officer after a man he’d stopped during a traffic stop began to beat the police officer.
Embroiled in a physical altercation with a motorist since identified as 53 year old man Edward Strother was Florida sheriff’s deputy Dean Bardes who at the time was on a receiving end of a ‘vicious beating’ when the cop summonsed a passerby who had stopped after witnessing the altercation to shoot the assailant.
Screaming ‘shoot him, shoot him’ the un-named ‘Good Samaritan’ who at the time was carrying a concealed weapon obliged Deputy Dean Bardes’ pleas, pumping three bullets into the officer’s attacker.
Edward Strother later died in hospital notes WinkNews.com.
The incident came to pass on Monday while Deputy Dean Bardes sought to pull the driver on Florida’s I-75 in Estero for a driving infraction.
Instead, Strother, driving a blue Toyota took off going more than a 100 miles per hour.
From there, Bardes a a 12 year veteran of the force, gave chase before the two finally came to a stop on the off-ramp.
That’s when Strother got out of his car and got into a confrontation with Bardes, slamming the cop to the ground and beating him on the side of the road. Bardes has allegedly told supervisors that the man was armed.
Another man was driving past the scene and witnessed the beating. So he got out of the car and told the man repeatedly to get off of the officer.
Good samaritan carrying a concealed weapon shoots a suspect attacking a Florida Deputy. @NRA #BlueLivesMatter #DeanBardes #EdwardStrother pic.twitter.com/SZIlVmTvgB
— Nicholas Garber (@NicholasGarber) November 15, 2016
Black man, Edward Strother, id’d as attacker. https://t.co/F2qV3uF3Eq
— EaglesUP! (@leopardtwo) November 15, 2016
Another witness, Shanta Holditch, told NBC 2 that the suspect ‘refused’ to get off the officer while the officer kept yelling, ‘shoot him, shoot him, shoot him,’ to the other man.
The other man, who had a concealed weapons license, complied and shot the suspect three times.
Told a witness: ‘I heard like three shots. He fell down on top of the police officer,’
‘After a moment, the police officer rolled him back over, got on his mic, then rolled over back on the ground besides the guy.’
Both the suspect and the officer were taken to the hospital. The suspect died from his injuries while the officer was treated and released. Deputy Bardes was not shot in the incident in what some witnesses described as potentially deadly.
Reports on Tuesday told of the assailant having an active misdemeanor arrest warrant for failure to appear in court on a battery charge.
Under Florida’s stand your ground law a ‘person is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or another.’
Of note, studies show that the law has led to a ‘huge increase’ in homicides in Florida.
To date, the Good Samaritan has yet to have been identified with Deputy Dean Bardes incurring minor injuries.
The ramp was closed for more than nine hours on Monday, as investigators combed the scene for evidence.
And then there were these comments on the web that made me wonder, see what you think?
Buy a gun, get trained, practice, get a concealed carry license and protect yourself, your family and your fellow man.
And we want gun control?
Time for all law abiding Americans to unite behind our law enforcement officers. Looking how the lawless radical left is carrying on, it’s going to become crucial very quickly.
The man that came to the defense of the officer definitely did the right thing. Of course, if the suspect was black, then I guess it is a case of racism AS USUAL!
Did it need three shots ? Surely a blast up the derriere would have terminated the assault ?
Like the good Samaritan couldn’t have intervened physically instead of blowing the guy away? A lot of these pistol packers just can’t wait to play hero.
Love my 2nd amendment.
