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Dr. Alane Olson, a medical examiner for the coroner’s office, testifies about morphine levels in Erik Scott’s blood during a coroner’s inquest at the Regional Justice Center Wednesday, September 22, 2010.
By Cara McCoy 
, Dave Toplikar (contact)
Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010 | 9:48 p.m.
Sun Archives
- Family critical of process as inquest into police shooting set to start (9-16-2010)
- Attorney for family in police shooting calls inquest process ‘a farce’ (9-16-2010)
- Attorney in Erik Scott case sends letter to judge over evidence (9-16-2010)
- Erik Scott’s family asks to view evidence before inquest (9-9-2010)
- Inquest into police shooting to be broadcast on cable TV (9-7-2010)
- Inquest set for Sept. 22 in police Costco shooting (8-12-2010)
- Metro mails Costco customers to find witnesses in police shooting (8-18-2010)
- Candlelight vigil held in memory of man killed by Metro Police (8-11-2010)
- Planning for a situation like recent Costco shooting not easy for police (7-19-2010)
- Man killed by police in Costco shooting honored at memorial (7-17-2010)
- Metro IDs officers in fatal shooting at Summerlin Costco (7-12-2010)
- Officers fatally shoot armed man at Summerlin Costco (7-10-10)
Colleen Kullberg was among the last to leave the Summerlin Costco store on July 10. The store was being evacuated — it could be a bomb threat, she thought — but as she was leaving the store, she wasn’t sure why she had been ordered out.
But after Kullberg, a part-time customer service employee, made her way from the back of the store where she was stationed to the front exit, it wasn’t a bomb that confronted her. A very different sort of explosive scene unfolded in front of her eyes, she testified on Wednesday.
A man, later determined to be Erik Scott, was staring at a Metro Police officer. Scott was standing with his arms to his sides and appeared to be dazed, she said.
He then reached around behind him and, with his right hand, removed a gun from his waistband and brought it forward, pointing it at the officer.
“What did you think he was going to do?” asked Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent.
“Shoot,” she said.
But before that could happen, the officer fired.
Kullberg was the final witness called during the first day of testimony in the coroner’s inquest into Scott’s death. The 38-year-old medical device salesman, a graduate of West Point and Duke University, was shot to death outside the Summerlin store on a busy Saturday afternoon.
Police responded to the store after a security employee called 911 to report a man was acting erratically, destroying merchandise. The caller told dispatchers the man had a gun and was possibly high on drugs.
Kullberg said that before shots were fired, the officer said “at least five times” for Scott to “get on the ground.”
“He was like, dazed,” she said. “He was not obeying any of (the officer’s) commands.”
On Wednesday, Laurent and Assistant District Attorney Chris Owens presented evidence that Scott had an addiction to hydrocodone, a prescription narcotic painkiller.
Dr. Alane Olson, a medical examiner in the Clark County Coroner’s Office, testified that Scott had a number of drugs in his system when he died. The levels of morphine and xanax found by a toxicology screen conducted after his death were very high and potentially lethal, she said.
Dr. Alane Olson, a medical examiner for the coroner's office, testifies about gunshot wounds during a coroner's inquest at the Regional Justice Center Wednesday, September 22, 2010.
The levels also indicated that he had likely built up a tolerance to the drugs over time, she said.
He died from multiple gunshot wounds, she said, and the death was ruled a homicide.
Seven bullets struck Scott’s body — five in the back, two in the front — but she couldn’t determine in which order the rounds struck him or from how far away they were fired, she said.
Dr. Shari Klein, a family practice doctor who has been practicing in Las Vegas for about 10 years, was the first of Scott’s physicians to testify. Klein treated Erik Scott for two years, until August 2009. She said he stopped coming to her for treatment because of financial hardship.
She told the jury that during that time he tried to get her to prescribe hydrocodone, which he told her he wanted for depression.
She said he told her he had chronic elbow and knee pain but never mentioned any back pain.
Later in the day, other doctors would testify that Scott told them he had suffered from chronic back pain for more than 15 years as a result of injuries sustained while he was a cadet at West Point coupled with a football injury.
Klein runs what she described as a “concierge” clinic, meaning she keeps the number of patients she sees small so that they have better access to her.
One of the ways that her patients can access her is via e-mail. Some of her e-mail correspondence with Scott was presented to the jury. In those e-mails, Scott told Klein that he had a high tolerance for medication. He said he wanted hydrocodone as a treatment for his depression.
Dr. Shari Klein, one Erik Scott's physicians, testifies during a coroner's inquest at the Regional Justice Center Wednesday, September 22, 2010. Scott was shot and killed by Metro Police Officers at the Summerlin Costco store on July 10.
In August 2009, he sent an e-mail saying he was suffering from chronic lower back pain and suggested the doctor could use that as a reason to give him the prescription, if she was uncomfortable prescribing it for depression.
Klein testified she never prescribed that medication for him. She said she never prescribed him morphine or any other narcotic. In response to his e-mails, Klein tried to get him to come in for a consultation, but he decided to drop her as his doctor in August 2009 for financial reasons, she said.
Dr. Daniel Kim, whose specialty is pain management, said he began treating Scott on Feb. 2, 2010, for chronic abdominal pain.
Kim said he prescribed medication for Scott that should have taken care of his pain. But about two weeks later, Scott contacted Kim to say he was out of medication. The medicine was supposed to last four weeks, until Scott’s next appointment.
“He doubled up everything that I gave to him,” Kim said.
Kim said he terminated Scott from his clinic and referred him to a list of detoxification centers.
“My conclusion is that he is suffering from an addiction, at the least to hydrocodone, if not to other narcotic substances,” Kim said.
Kim said it was possible for people to be addicted to a narcotic substance and still do their jobs. He said about 5 to 10 percent of people who come to pain clinics might be addicted to their pain medications.
Scott told Kim he had been treating his back pain with common over-the-counter drugs for years but the pain had become unbearable.
Dr. Daniel Kim, one of Erik Scott's physicians, looks through medical records during a coroner's inquest at the Regional Justice Center Wednesday, September 22, 2010.
Kim said another doctor, a gastroenterologist, had already given Scott a prescription for hydrocodone before he began treating him.
Kim said that after reviewing test results and other medical reports, he couldn’t find any pathology that would explain Scott’s abdominal pain. He attributed it to being a possible symptom of withdrawal from hydrocodone.
The jury also heard about 40 minutes of testimony from Dr. Joseph Gnoyski, who treated Scott for lower back pain with prescription narcotics, which included morphine and hydrocodone starting in February 2010.
He said Scott told him he had suffered back pain for 17 years from a paratrooping accident and from an earlier football injury. But Gnoyski said Scott told him the pain had grown much worse in February, following an automobile accident.
Gnoyski said Scott described his pain as a “10 out of 10” after the auto accident and said he couldn’t function. He said Scott described the pain as if someone hit him with a baseball bat.
Gnoyski said he ordered an MRI for Scott and found Scott had a broken back, an unstable spine and a ruptured disk. Gnoyski said that after discussing various treatment options, Scott didn’t want surgery because it wasn’t guaranteed to be successful and had a number of risks, including the possibility for an increase in pain.
Gnoyski said he saw Scott seven times. Initially, he didn’t follow the treatment, Gnoyski said, but midway through the treatment, Scott began complying with his doctor’s orders.
Gnoyski said Scott’s final visit with him was an informal visit in a hallway on July 1. Scott seemed to be groggy and had stumbled a couple of times, the doctor said.
“After 40 to 50 paces, he regained his composure. I had thought he might not have used his meds appropriately,” Gnoyski said. “My last dealing was to try to get him into my office.”
Gnoyski testified he didn’t think Scott was a drug seeker.
“This guy works out every day. It’s not like he is seeking a buzz just to lie around,” Gnoyski said. “... I don’t believe this man was trying to get a buzz ... It just doesn’t mesh with his character.”
He said Scott was a high-level athletic performer, similar to an acrobat who might be in a Cirque du Soleil show on the Las Vegas Strip.
“I have a lot of respect for him,” Gnoyski said.
Gnoyski said there is a difference between someone who is an addict and someone who seems to be an addict who needs drugs for pain. But someone who seems to be an addict will begin to cut back on their medication once they begin to manage that pain.
Gnoyski said when he saw Scott act in a groggy manner, “it wasn’t like he was out of control, that he was going crazy.” He said he seemed to be functional.
Laurent pointedly asked if Gnoyski knew if Scott was getting additional narcotics from any other source. The doctor said he didn’t know.
A report had been filed with a state task force that indicated Scott had received multiple prescriptions for narcotics from different doctors, which Laurent pointed out is a felony in Nevada.
Gnoyski said Scott had a physiological dependency to the narcotics he was taking, but that wasn’t the same as an addiction, which also includes a psychological dependency, he said.
About 2 to 5 percent of people who take such medications become addicted, he said.
Dr. Joseph Gnoyski, left, one of Erik Scott's physicians, listens to Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent during a coroner's inquest at the Regional Justice Center Wednesday, September 22, 2010.
Gnoyski said that over a period of time, Scott began to get better and that his pain level diminished from a “10 out of 10” to a “two out of 10” on a pain scale.
Laurent asked him if the dosage of morphine that Scott had been taking could have caused him to misunderstand directions. Gnoyski said Scott should have been able to follow directions.
Laurent also showed the jury a letter Gnoyski had drafted to cut Scott off as a patient following the informal July 1 encounter.
Gnoyski said he changed his mind and didn’t send the letter. He decided to have Scott come back into the office for treatment and reduce the amount of hydrocone he was taking and, eventually, the amount of morphine.
A jury of 11, which includes four alternates, is hearing testimony at the inquest. The proceedings are slated to run through the end of this week and possibly spill into next week.
The ACLU and Scott’s family have criticized the inquest process, calling it one-sided. Inquests are not adversarial in nature; rather, they are fact-finding procedures designed to determine the facts surrounding police officer-involved deaths.
Metro has identified the three officers involved as William Mosher, 38, who has been with the department since June 2005; Joshua Stark, 28, with the department since September 2008; and Thomas Mendiola, 23, with the department since March 2009.
The men have been on paid administrative leave since the shooting, in accordance with department policy. All three are patrol officers assigned to the Northwest Area Command.
In addition to the three officers, also expected to testify are dozens of witnesses — both shoppers and employees — who were at Costco at the time of the shooting. Scott’s girlfriend, Samantha Sterner, who was with him at the shopper’s warehouse club store, is also scheduled to take the stand.
Following the day-long inquest, Scott’s family members met briefly with their attorney, Ross Goodman. They then went outside, where Goodman talked to reporters on the east sidewalk outside the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas.
Goodman told reporters that prosecutors for the Clark County District Attorney’s Office were trying to “character assassinate” Scott.
“Erik Scott worked 60 hours a week. He was interacting with his girlfriend. He was a upstanding guy. And whatever medication that Erik was taking had no effect on him whatsoever,” Goodman said.
Ross Goodman, attorney for the Scott family, hands a question to Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy during a coroner's inquest at the Regional Justice Center Wednesday, September 22, 2010.
Asked why prosecutors were dwelling on the medication, Goodman said it was because there was no video showing that the officers shot Scott “in cold blood.”
He also dismissed as “questionable” the dramatic final testimony that jurors heard Wednesday from Kullberg.
“All I know is that in interviewing at least 20 to 25 witnesses, Erik didn’t pull a gun or point a gun at anybody,” Goodman said.
Jurors will determine whether the shooting was justifiable, excusable or criminal. Coroner’s juries do not have to be unanimous in reaching their verdict.
Proceedings are schedule to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.
After reading about Mr. Scott's drug levels, I have now had five times the lethal dose of this story.
If the lab results were indeed true, there is no way that the police officers actions are not justified.
Because the Coroner's Inquest system has already been established as a bias joke that wouldn't know justice if the Lady, herself, smacked it upside the head, I sincerely hope that the Scott family takes this to civil court, where some real discovery will hopefully take place. I particularly hope they are able to get to the bottom of the "disappeared" video tapes of what really happened. And ultimately, I hope that the tragic death of this citizen culminates in true reform of the inquest system. An above commenter applauds the execution of a fellow citizen, without knowing at all what really happened. I, for one, don't claim to know what went on in this particular case. And that's why we need an open, adversarial system, with both sides having equal opportunity to present facts, introduce and question witnesses, and conduct cross examinations. Such reform is reasonable and necessary: police officers killing citizens is the gravest of all matters. Men and women don't joint the police force so that they can kill. But sometimes such an unfortunate action comes with the occupation. And then, so must an inquest -- a TRUE inquest -- into what really happened.
It is said that most police officers never have to draw their weapons. Good for them. I imagine this applies for the majority of Metro's finest, as well. Without painting the entire department with the same broad brush, we nevertheless see too many citizen's being gunned down by the police, followed by the automatic "justified" rulings by the one-sided inquest system.
The broken system is not fair to killed, their beloved, and frankly, not fair to Metro. Officers who genuinely ARE justified in firing their weapons, are done no service by a broken, unfair system that casts doubt upon each and every predictable and automatic "justified" ruling that is handed down.
Lampshade and LVLawDog,
You two are WRONG. It has been reported that several witnesses stated that Scott never drew his weapon. Having high levels of morphine in one's blood is NOT a crime punishable by death.
What would be a justifiable shooting, would be if Scott really did draw his weapon. But we don't know if that happened, now do we? The video mysteriously has been destroyed, or otherwise rendered "unrecoverable," while in Metro's hands. Pretty suspicious. If I were a betting man, I'd bet the witnesses who say he did not reach for his gun were correct.
But that's what we need a real inquest for -- to find out which of these diametrically opposed versions is the true one. Not this rigged system that so easily has distracted you two from the real issues (ie., What happened to the tape? and, What did the tape really show?). Because, to repeat, just having pain killers in one's blood, is no reason to be shot dead.
Chunky says:
Again, Mr. Scott created his own problem; Costco didn't do it, the doctors didn't do it and Metro didn't do it.
Listening to today's testimony made Chunky realize there are a lot more people out there than he thought who are jacked up on prescription drugs.
People on this level of medication shouldn't even be driving a car much less carrying a weapon around in their pocket.
That's what Chunky thinks!
DTJ, you explain the faults of this horribly biased "inquest" system very well. After what happened to Mr. Cole, and now Mr. Scott, it appears that the resulting publicity surrounding these two cases may finally cause this absurd system to be reformed. Today's "performance" by the DA's office was embarrassing, disturbing, and extremely disrespectful to true justice.
Peaceperson,
Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm trying to be fair.
On another, more specific point: the D.A.'s witness from the coroner's office is shown pointing to a ridiculously simplistic and misleading graphic which states: "Lethal range (of morphine)70~350 ng/ml." But we learn from same graphic that Erik Scott was walking around with 1800 ng/ml in his body. So by definition, the range given, which maxes out 350 for lethality, is not an accurate range. Indeed, according to this story, the witness for the D.A. merely said something to the effect that the levels in Scott were "potentially lethal" (quotes"" from story, not necessarily from witness). It's already known that levels of lethality vary quite widely, exemplified by Scott's alleged high levels in this case. Highlighting such low levels for use on this graphic, and starkly labeling them as "the" lethal range, was a cynical ploy to manipulate to broader public tuning in.
But lastly, as the witness, whose allegiance and motivations I already question, could not be cross-examined by someone else with expertise in the field, we do not know the credibility of her methodology. But just to play Devil's advocate, please have a look at following explanation on how testing procedures for morphine presence can have significant impact upon, and skew results. Might some of that have been going on here in Scott's case? Might his true numbers not be anywhere as high as the alleged 1800 ??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphine#De...
There can be serious suspicions that the D.A./Coroner's office has presented ginned-up, biased "facts." I would really LOVE to have famed Barry Scheck walk into this process, and have a turn at this cornoner's witness in the same way he shredded the unprofessional, incompetent Dennis Fung, during the OJ trial, once upon a time.
Regardless of which "side" you take here, you must admit;
This is nothing but a DOG & PONY SHOW.
I didn't know that taking morphine / prescription meds was a death penalty crime --- one that has no need for a judge and jury. I'll see if I can find the NV statute and post back as soon as I find it.
Bottom line is that Scott would be alive today if he wasn't carrying two weapons into a Costco.
With that much drugs in his system, he should have passed out long ago. This is just a show so the family won't file a lawsuit against metro.
mschaffer, you and I totally agree on this point. A rare and pleasant surprise.
He also didn't increase his chances for survival by being addicted to painkillers and carrying those guns in a public place.
DTJ, you say you are trying to be fair, but you discount a witness, discount the tox screen, discount Costco's reason behind the faulty video camera and then you play the O.J. card.
You are hardly fair or balanced.
btw, you cite Barry Scheck, his function in the OJ case was to REFUTE the reliability of DNA evidence. The same evidence he uses to get people off death row by proving how RELIABLE it is. No thanks. Mr. Scheck is as fair as yourself.
Las Vegas Police it's trying, as usual, to cover it up. Look at the witness, it's easy to see the old lady has been trained to say and to act like that.
Conveniently left out of yesterday's testimony was an explanation from one of Scott's physicians that may have explained the high level of hydrocodone found in Scott"
Here is what Scott's father wrote on his blog BEFORE yesterday's testimony:
'What the prosecutor will present is a notation from a general-practitioner claiming Erik was "addicted to pain killers." But GPs aren't pain-management specialists, which is why Erik was under the care of Dr. Gnoyski at Rehabilitation Associates Nevada. And the DA won't tell us that, on February 2, 2010, Dr. Kuo said that my son "may be in a population of people who lack an enzyme to properly break down 'Hydro' in the liver; thus the requirement for high doses" of hydrocodone pain killer.'
He called it. We heard the DA focus on the speculative evidence that Scott may have been addicted to pain killers, but I don't recall hearing anything about the doctor's assertion that Scott needed high doses of hydrocodone to get any effect.
Once again, this is why there should the inquest process should be adversarial in nature and why both sides should be presented.
Drug Tolerance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In physiology, physiological tolerance or drug tolerance is commonly encountered in pharmacology, when a subject's reaction to a drug (such as an opiate painkiller, benzodiazepine or other psychotropic drug) decreases[1] so that larger doses are required to achieve the same effect. Drug tolerance can involve both psychological drug tolerance and physiological factors. Characteristics of drug tolerance: it is reversible, the rate depends on the particular drug, dosage and frequency of use, differential development occurs for different effects of the same drug. Physiological tolerance also occurs when an organism builds up a resistance to the effects of a substance after repeated exposure.
Gee - I verified identity through facebook, gave the sun permission and still I have an ugly red minus. hmmmmmmmmm
If you a brain incident where your temporarily impaired the Dmv automatically temporarily revokes your license until such time that your physician gives you a clean bill of health. sadly in this case with the level of drugs involved this fellow was still allowed to drive and also allowed to carry concealed weapons.His life would not have been in jeopardy if these restrictions were in place
What motivation does a part time, minimum wage person have to lie?
It's a ridiculous argument. He was in a daze, he pulled a gun, he got shot. She testified he disregarded an order to get down 5 TIMES!!
Somehow she mis-heard the word "get down" 5 times?? Ridiculous.
Misdirection the inquest should not be about prescription drugs...it should be about the shooting.
Chunky says:
Whether Mr. Scott would have been alive "today" or not is irrelevant to whether he was simply carrying two guns. His FAILURE to follow the orders of the armed police officer and then pointing a gun at them got him killed; he didn't have to be high or carry multiple weapons to get that result.
Also, with lethal doses of multiple narcotics in his system he may have not lived to see this day whether the Costco incident happened or not.
Again, Chunky is not a big fan of the cops but if Chunky were in those cops shoes or faced with someone pointing a gun at him or Mrs. Chunks, he'd do everything he could to stop that aggressor.
No matter how you paint it, Mr. Scott created his problem apparently over the course of many years abusing prescription drugs including right up to the moment of reaching in his waistband and pointing a gun at an armed police officer.
That's what Chunky thinks!
Where is the video?
TomD1228
Sometimes even police lie. Imagine that.
Citizens are easily coerced er, "coached' by those in power to provide "eyewitness" testimony to support their claims.
Her motivation...who knows, and her employment status makes no difference.
Since when was Costco a minimum wage job?
Never pull a gun on the Police, forget the drugs. If a policeman tells you to get on the ground, do it. It's plain and simple. If he didn't have a gun on him then the police were wrong. If Scott had a gun and was hopped up on drugs and raised it and didn't do what the police ask him to do, they have a right to protect themselves. My question is his parents are all over this, but where were they, when he needed help for his addition? You have to be a parent all the time, not just after something happens. His family should have put him in rehab he had some big drug problems. They could of saved him! He hung out with his brother from the press reports, where was he? His girlfriend she knew he was hooked on all this stuff, maybe she was too,if she loved him why didn't she get him help. And where were is friends, nobody saw his problem till he was killed.
Chunky says:
Good point "timemist" on where were the family and friends when he needed early help that would have saved his life in all aspects?
That's what Chunky thinks too!
If you believe the good Doctor that Mr. Scott had five times the 'lethal' range of morphine in his system then you are a fool because he'd already have passed out and would be dead. What a great smear campaign these guys are putting on -- and remember, dead people can't defend themselves.
@gmag39: No question about it.
If I were a prosecutor and started talking about how you had tried cocaine several years ago in your past, I would only be doing it to discredit you. I would know that that information really had nothing to do with your case. In an actual trial, such evidence would never be allowed.
If I introduced evidence showing that you had high levels of hydrocodone in your system, but neglected to present a doctor's report indicating that you may have needed twice the amount of hydrocodone to get the the same pain relief as an average person because your liver had a shortage of enzymes necessary to break down the hydrocodone, then you might want to question my motives.
In an adversarial process, defense counsel would introduce the report explaining the reasons for the high level of hydrocodone. But prosecutors are under no obligation to do so at a coroner's inquest. In the end, the most objective piece of evidence is the videotape, followed by impartial eyewitnesses that saw the entire incident.
Unfortunately, we don't have the videotape and the DA controls which witnesses testify. This is one of the reasons why we didn't find out about Officer Yant's history of lying and fabricating evidence until AFTER the Cole inquest was over.
Does anyone honestly believe that the DA is going put up any witness that will contradict their version of events. For example they will not put up any witness that testifies that "THEY DID NOT SEE ERIC SCOTT PULL OUT A GUN".
This is why the whole inquest system is a farce. You only get one side of the story.
My brother is taking 2 morphine pills a day - I better go lock him up as he must be a criminal! He should ignore what the directions are on the bottle as they could be wrong.
That powerful Hydrocodone - Ooh that scary medicine, love how that is thrown into the conversation. Did Marshall Allen of the Sun Coach up the DA's office? The guy was on a really weak pain killer, if he had 1 hydrocodone pill - I am sure that the scary music would have started to play in the courtroom.
It all boils down to the gun. If he did not draw it, they over reacted. If people saw it on him and then freaked out then we have this to talk about.
It took 7 shots? I am all for suspending or firing the officers that could hit him in the arm or rear. Do you want an officer who aims for the rear or the arm? I am wondering since we have guys not hitting the target, how many shots missed him? All these shots to take down 1 guy?
I don't think Mr Scott deserved to die, but his actions seem erratic, starting with the fact he was on mind altering drugs. I deal with people like this everyday, and they become immune to narcotics, and they don't know what hit them when they die, I lost several patients because of overdosing lortab (hydrocodone with tylenol), xanax (alprazolam) , soma (carisoprodol) combined. What they don't know is that the tylenol in lortab is what kills you since it doesn't allow the liver to work properly and detox your body hence accumulating lots of medicine in your blood stream.
Add these commonly prescribed medicines in Las Vegas (just pay doctor M $100 and get your narcotics) to pot or marijuana or amphetamines and you have the perfect combination to take yourself out of this world, we have seen drivers driving under the influence of xanax killing several innocent people already.
Mr Scott broke several laws, for which he didn't deserve the death penalty, but most importantly he wasn't supposed to carry a gun, since being a user of controlled drugs (morphine, lortab, xanax) is ground to deny your gun rights. Have witnesses stating he didn't draw his gun, and I say metro is guilty, but so far the shooting was justified. Sorry for the Scott family to have to hear all of these stuff in public television.
Are you serious, citing Wikipedia as a source? Wikipedia can be edited by anybody, I can write an article and select my facts and sources. You have a medical/pharmacological degree or studies or practice with controlled substances? The point is he has shown erratic behavior for some time, controlled substances alter your mind, your perception of reality. None of the violations to the law Mr Scott commited deserved the "death penalty" or "police execution", but we all know, at least medical professionals, that mind altering drugs can kill you, one way or another, and some people even want the police to kill them since they don't have the courage to comit suicide, this might not be the case.
Mr Scott wasn't supposed to carry a gun since he was taking controlled substances, and that is a NV statue, that's why he didn't want to go to rehab or detox since he knew he was going to lose his gun rights.
We need to change the law and force everybody who wants a drivers license take a drug and alcohol test periodically, you cannot drive under the influence of prescribed drugs either.
How often do we hear news of a shooting spree only later to hear from shooters family, friends etc. that it couldn't have been them.
This guy was having a personal meltdown, walkin around with TWO guns, Dr. shopping for drugs and his menacing behavior. It's understandable though sad that he died. Cops had seconds to act. His family is in denial, ACLU and attorneys are milkin' this for gain.
Are you kidding me? We are not talking about ONE pill of morphine or hydrocodone (lortab), which by the way they put me to sleep when I took them after surgery. Mr Scott had a TASK FORCE report showing him going to different doctors and/or different pharmacies to obtain his pain killers, so it was more than one pill for sure. In addition, having drug tolerance means your body or pain transmitors need more medicine to block the pain, but your brain still have the same number of neurons, you cannot make more neurons. You can treat pain without narcotics. Besides, if he had such a bad lower back, with crushed disks and everything, he wasn't supposed to have an "active" life going to the gym and everything, you are kind of crippled when your back is gone. We are talking about the deadly combination of mind altering drugs and guns which is a big NO-NO among gun owners. Mr Scott most probably knew he coulnd't carry guns after going to detox clinics, so that's why he didn't go. Don't blame his family, friends and/or doctors, Mr Scott was a grown up who knew the consecuences of his actions. Again, I'm sorry he is dead.
Eyewitness testimony is clear. Scott ignored police orders several times and pulled a gun on the Officers.
Justified homocide.
This turns out only one way, the way metro wants it to.
This guy was horribly impaired. I wouldn't want to be on the road with someone with that level of narcotics in his system, an no one should feel safe if he's also carrying weapons.
Sounds like the guy had a death wish. Morphine is usually administered sublingually to patients on hospice care (i.e. terminally ill). Until the CCTV footage is released, the skeptics will continue to deny Mr. Scott provoked this tragedy.
Some of you continue to amaze me. A Witness testifies that she saw him pull his gun. Some of you say she is lying. Scott jumps from Doctor to Doctor to get drugs, which if im not mistaken is Illegal. You continue to say he was murdered. If a man has a gun, reaches for it in front of a cop, what would YOU do? Stand there and let him shoot YOU? Get your heads out of the clouds. The evidence is showing what YOU dont want to believe. All you want is to see the police wrong and go to trial for doing their jobs and protecting YOU. I would think The best way to change what YOU feel is wrong is to go to the police academy and wear the uniform. Or go to Law School, run for office and change it. It is sad that Scott had to die. But anyone taking the meds he had in his system had a serious problem and should never of had a permit to carry.
Like others, I saw the sign stating that Scott had several times the lethal level of morphine in his system. According to the sign, the lethal weapon for morphine falls within a range of 70-350 ng/ml. The visual aid also labels Scott's morphine level as 1,800 ng/ml. Wow! Quite the discrepancy.
Here's what is puzzling: If the upper range for a lethal level of morphine is 350 ng/ml, by definition, someone with 350 ng/ml in their system would be dead.
(That is if the definition of lethal is still dead.) Upon further review, it is: Lethal \Le"thal\ (l[=e]"thal), a. [L. lethalis, letalis, fr. lethum, letum, death: cf. F. l['e]thal.] Deadly; mortal; fatal. "The lethal blow." --W. Richardson.
The information on the board presents a clear discrepancy.
I find myself taking repeated double-takes as the level of emotion shown by Officer Mosher. It is simply unfathomable. His testimony is devoid of emotion.
There is no remorse for having killed someone. None.
+++++
Please, don't respond with the time-worn "professional demeanor" argument.
It is possible to show remorse for one's actions in a "professional demeanor."
The guy just doesn't care. I wouldn't want to be his dog.
Why do some of us on this site refer to ourselves in the third person?
So, the tox screen could not be exaggerated in favor of the police? 5X the lethal dose= 5X dead, yet he was shopping in costco, and was able to alledgedly pull his weapon on police, doesnt sound too close to death to me.
Or maybe he had elevated amounts because he had been taking it for a while and his body absored/metabolized in his system? The inquest DA's wont allow anyone to hear possible explanations to thier argument, hence why the NV inquest procedure is a fricking joke.
159 officer involed shootings in Las vegas, since 1976, and only 1 officer was held criminally negligant.Does that shed light onto how impartial and fair NV inquests actually are.Also, metro has been caught lying for officers to keep them from being held criminally negligent in the recent past, but all you sheep forget about it and still think metro is honest and would never stack the deck in their favor, especially in a situation where their word cannot be challenged, such as an inquest proceeding.wake up people!
The witness, in my opinion was coached by the Costco lawyer,and offered money for her testimony to say that he pulled his weapon, because if not, Costco would be in for a serious civil lawsuit, due to the fabricated story the costco employee gave to dispatch. She had no clue what a gun was, yet when the black thing fell from the officers belt, it was a clip. She saw the gun, as plain as day, yet could not remember the color of it?
Really, you saw him pull the gun, but dont remember the color from 5 feet away, but remember how many times the officers shouted commands, the officers age, color, and how they all held their weapons, but cant remember the color of the victims clothes, color of the gun, just what needed to be remmebered to help the police save face...AGAIN!!!
The employee that originally called dispatch even admitted that he confronted erik and explained the gun policy, but never asked him to leave...WHa,wha WHAT??? He wasnt asked to leave the premises, but was killed because of tearing up property, legally carrying a firearm and acting Erratically..If i was tearing up property, i would be asked to leave the store or be held by store security while police were called.Why was this man allowed to, as this employee says" ripping open packages,and damaging merchindise", yet was never asked to leave the store? Was told about the gun policy, yet not told to leave the premises, in the witnesses own words!! ALL BS
hell, I act erratic at times, due to other things on my mind, or being upset from previous situations in the day, I hope I dont get shot for that, because im sure i do it on occasion.
The police testimony couldnt go any other way than it did, or he would be self incriminating himself.
I've seen a lot of apologists for the killing of a citizen cherry-pick the witness accounts and use bonehead statements such as the following:
"Eyewitness testimony is clear. Scott ignored police orders several times and pulled a gun on the Officers."
FALSE. It turns out the very police officer who shot Scott first, contradicts yesterday's witness who claimed that. Scott was ordered to drop the gun, and he was in the process of doing so with the gun holstered, when he was shot seven times.
And to Getalife, who lies about Barry Scheck, I'll correct the record you besmirched. Scheck correctly exposed the lab technician Dennis Fung's completely unprofessional and incompetent handling of evidence. Scheck also exposed that the "the fence" at the property where Brown and Goldman were murdered was photographed by police photographers: first with NO blood on it, then later WITH blood on it. Nice! That impossibility (impossible, that is, unless someone went back and applied OJ's blood to the fence), coupled with the fact that Fung lost track of where Simpson's blood sample was for over two days, was more than enough to discredit any phony and planted "DNA" evidence which GetALife's buddy, corrupt and dirty cop Mark Fuhrman, had used to frame OJ.
(To everyone else: for the record, I do believe OJ committed the murders. But it's also clear that the LAPD was guilty of trying to plant evidence to get a conviction). All of this is instructive and relevant to the Erik Scott killing by Metro, by the way. Police are in no way beyond reproach nor exempt from suspicions of cover-ups.
Methadone (morphine) is the staple drug for long term, intractable chronic pain. It is also used for heroin addiction. The VA (veterans administration) is the largest prescriber of methadone in the world. This man appears to have had a legal prescription for methadone.
Like this man, I am ALWAYS legally armed when I am in Vegas.
People may wonder why it took seven shot to neturalize the suspect. When a person is high on drug, and in this case pain killers, in most cases it takes more that seven shots to neturalize a suspect. I recall a case where it took over 20 shots to neturalize a drug high suspect. Erik was on a suicide mission and he knew it, its a shame that other don't see it. You don't walk into a business, act strangly, show a weapon and then act angry. THis will result in a 911 call everytime and the call will be a person with a weapon because 911 operator always ask this question. Erik was in pain, estranged and on a tail spin to nowhere. Bill Scott needs to realize his son was not the person who he think he is and accept that if Erik was the person he knew, he would of dropped his weapon, laid on the ground and did everything that officers requested. Erik made the decision he was planning all along, suicide, but he involved three people that will live with this for the rest of their lives. When a professional soldier or police officer kills a person in the line of duty, it stays with you the rest of your life. Its not something you want on your hands, it will haunt you the rest of you life.
Express445,
It sounds to me like YOU are the one under the influence of narcotics -- your post is one long list of unsubstantiated imagined jiggery-pokery.
The seven shots came from three different cops, each who literally "jumped the gun." And who ever said "it took seven shots to neutralize" Scott? Scott WAS removing his HOLSTERED pistol -- as ordered to do -- when the first cop opened fire on him. Next time, please read the comments which preceded yours, before posting something that has already been discredited.
express445, how many victims do you have on your conscious? Seems like moeser doesnt mind at all, in fact it is his 2nd killing in just over 4 years, and he has only been on the force 5!!! maybe he still thinks he is in IRAQ, and we are all terrorists, i dont know, but a man who just killed his second civilian in 4 years didnt look too beat up mentally or emotionally from it.
That man needs to be off the force, and in my mind in jail. How can you know that the man has a legally carried weapon, ambush him as he is being evacuated from the store(he didnt know the store was being evaced due to him), first thing he says is " I have a gun" as taught when getting your CCW, and was complying with the officers commands to drop it and get on the ground. Not sure if you realize this, but it is quite hard to disarm when you are on the ground, so he decided to drop the firearm first, then im sure he would have gotten down, but he was shot before he could comply.
A man on a death wish does not inform the police that he has a gun, and if he really wanted to die, he could have just used his firearm to kill himself, like many other people do. If he really wanted to die, why not shoot up the costco and the loss prevention guy when he came over to him explaining the firearms policy?? That would get him shot in a hurry, so why not take out a punk ass or 2 first, if he was going to die that day? Why bring your girlfriend? wouldnt you go to the costco by yourself if you were ready to commit suicide by cop? erik never even showed the weapon to anyone, he never thought that his legally concealed weapon was going to be the death of him? think first!
The officers gave the wrong commands, especially knowing the man was legally armed. Also why not have 2 of the officers with tasers in their tactical L formation, or even 1, so if the situation started to escalate, they could have tasered him, with 1 or 2 officer(s) still armed, ready to shoot, if non lethal means were not working. They had 6 minutes sitting in front of costco to come up with a plan better than they did...
Police are trained to deal with these types of situations, not just shoot first, shoot some more, shoot, shoot, shoot... You should never tell a man with a gun to drop it unless it is already in his hands, which by witness testimony was not the case.
Correct commands would be "keep your hands in the air where i can see them. Do not go for your weapon or you will be shot, turn around and get down on the ground palms up and spread you arms and legs wide."
the officers should have disarmed him, they yelled drop the weapon, well to me, that means you want me to get my firearm and drop it, then get on the ground..never once did they yell keep your hands away from your firearm that they knew he had? If they did, i missed it on the 911 tape.
1 thing I must say. erik was wrong in that he was on prescription medication while carrying a firearm, a huge no-no. He also should have never reached for his gun while in police presence even though he was commanded to, he should have kept his hands in the air and just got down on the ground, but thats easy to say now in hindsight.
I dont think LEO should have to sit around and wait until someone fires on them before being allowed to respond and defend themselves, but a bit of middle ground where they would be trained to deal with a situation non lethally first...Moeser said they are not trained to deal with situations non lethally when a gun is involved? That is poor training, in my opinion.