Go ahead #BlackLivesMatter: Make my day
Surely this incident will attract protests from “BlacklivesMatter. A black man, 52 year old Andrew Coffee, Jr., was riding home from a convenience store in Indian River County, Florida, after purchasing cigarettes in the wee hours of the morning, when he was pulled over by Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Lester.
Coffee’s son later commented,
“It’s crazy how it happened,” said Roderick Scott, 35, the son… “I don’t understand how it happened, from you going to the store on a scooter. What was the point of stopping him?” (snip)
“He wants to do better for his kids and his grandkids,” Scott said. “It’s been rough, but he finds different jobs in landscaping on a daily basis.”
Cue the righteous indignation! The excuse for pulling him over:
Lester pulled over Coffee because the scooter did not have a license tag, which is required.
Ahem. License tags are required. Not having one is indeed a good reason for a traffic stop. But what made it more interesting is what happened after the stop. Here is the dashcam video:
As Will Greenlee and Lamaur Stancil of TCPalm describe it:
A dashboard camera video released by the Sheriff’s Office showed Lester directing Coffee to place his hands on the hood of his patrol car.
“Don’t reach for anything,” Lester said.
After Coffee walked to the front of the patrol car, he swung his fist and struck Lester in the face, the video shows. As Lester fell, Coffee pulled a gun from his waistband and began firing at the deputy, who fired back, sheriff’s officials said.
Lester was shot once in the leg but managed to chase Coffee about 100 yards. Coffee was struck twice in the abdomen, Scott said.
Coffee’s .357 magnum revolver held six cartridges, while Lester’s Glock .45 handgun holds 13 in the magazine and one in the chamber, [County Sheriff Deryl] Loar said.
“We know (Lester) exhausted that magazine,” Loar said. “He shot 14 times and he was attempting to reload as he retreated.”
Flowers said investigators were trying Friday to determine how many times Coffee fired his weapon.
Coffee hid from deputies, but was tracked down and found in a stack of crates at a fruit packing company, Loar said. Ten minutes later, Deputy Richard Henson and his K-9 partner Falko tracked Coffee to the hiding spot, Loar said.
Some background on the man pulled over:
Andrew Coffee Jr., 52, of the 4200 block of 26th Avenue in Vero Beach, was released last year from prison after serving two decades for attempted murder, according to the state Department of Corrections. In the time he was incarcerated, Coffee’s four children had 21 grandchildren.
Lots of his descendants populating America.
And he is well known to the Sheriff’s Department:
Coffee Jr. has been arrested about 20 times, almost always by the Sheriff’s Office, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. His first arrest was in October 1981 when he was 18, and his most recent was on Dec. 3 on drug-related charges.
Coffee Jr.’s other arrests were on charges including disorderly conduct, aggravated assault, battery, disorderly intoxication, sexual assault, cocaine possession and aggravated battery.
Fortunately, both men survived their gunshot wounds.
So go ahead, BLM: Make my day.
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