GoFundMe took the highly unusual step of shutting down a fundraiser for the South Bend PD 19 year veteran who finds himself in the middle of a Presidential campaign for doing his job.
An alternate site is allowing the project.
fundly.com
In the dark morning hours of 3:30 AM on Sunday, June 16, Sergeant Ryan O’Neill, a 19-year veteran of the department, received a call about a man breaking into cars at an apartment complex near downtown. Sgt. O’Neill drove to the scene and observed a man, later identified as Eric Logan, with only his legs sticking out from the front seat of a car. Thinking the man may be the car’s owner, Sgt. O’Neill got out of his patrol car and asked the man if this was his car. The man claimed it was.
However, when the man stood up, Sgt. O’Neill observed that his hand was bleeding, and a woman’s purse was halfway stuck in his clothing. When Sgt. O’Neill asked him about the purse, the six-foot-two suspect stood up and raised an eight inch hunting knife over his head and began moving directly toward the officer.Sgt. O’Neill immediately began backing up and loudly ordered the suspect the drop the knife, three separate times.
Instead of dropping the knife, the suspect continued to move toward Sgt. O’Neill. When Sgt. O’Neill ran out of room to retreat, he fired his duty weapon twice, hitting the suspect once -- just as the suspect hurled the hunting knife at him. The blade hit Sgt. O’Neill, causing minor injuries to his forearm.The suspect remained standing but never answered any questions from the officer as to whether he’d been shot. The suspect’s erratic behavior throughout the entire incident appeared be the result of drug intoxication. Sgt. O’Neill coordinated the medical response and worked with other officers, who rather than wait for EMS, rushed the suspect to the hospital in a police car.
Mills continued, “Police are taught to treat a knife as a deadly weapon, because a suspect armed with a knife within 21-feet of an officer is as much of a deadly threat as a suspect with a gun. In this case, the suspect armed with an eight-inch hunting knife was less than 10 feet from the officer and refused multiple commands to drop the weapon. In light of self-defense law and police training, this shooting was completely justified.”
According to official court records available to the public, the suspect armed with the eight-inch hunting knife had an active felony warrant for violating his probation at the time of the shooting and likely faced being returned to prison for the remaining seven years of a previous prison sentence if Sgt. O’Neill had arrested him. The suspect also had several previous criminal convictions on his record, including drug and weapons offenses.“Mayor Buttigieg swore an oath to ‘faithfully, impartially, and diligently discharge the duties of the office of mayor’ of South Bend but he’s been faithful only to his political interests, has not been impartial about this incident, and has diligently used this to advance his presidential campaign,” Mills concluded. “If he wants to honor the oath he took, Mayor Buttigieg will recuse himself from this matter by taking no part in any decisions, conversations, or other aspects of it.”
An alternate site is allowing the project.
Click here to support Help Defend Officer Ryan O'Neill by Harvey Mills
This page is intended to raise funds for the legal defense and communications relating to South Bend Police Sergeant Ryan O'Neill. Sgt. O'Neill is being ...
In the dark morning hours of 3:30 AM on Sunday, June 16, Sergeant Ryan O’Neill, a 19-year veteran of the department, received a call about a man breaking into cars at an apartment complex near downtown. Sgt. O’Neill drove to the scene and observed a man, later identified as Eric Logan, with only his legs sticking out from the front seat of a car. Thinking the man may be the car’s owner, Sgt. O’Neill got out of his patrol car and asked the man if this was his car. The man claimed it was.
However, when the man stood up, Sgt. O’Neill observed that his hand was bleeding, and a woman’s purse was halfway stuck in his clothing. When Sgt. O’Neill asked him about the purse, the six-foot-two suspect stood up and raised an eight inch hunting knife over his head and began moving directly toward the officer.Sgt. O’Neill immediately began backing up and loudly ordered the suspect the drop the knife, three separate times.
Instead of dropping the knife, the suspect continued to move toward Sgt. O’Neill. When Sgt. O’Neill ran out of room to retreat, he fired his duty weapon twice, hitting the suspect once -- just as the suspect hurled the hunting knife at him. The blade hit Sgt. O’Neill, causing minor injuries to his forearm.The suspect remained standing but never answered any questions from the officer as to whether he’d been shot. The suspect’s erratic behavior throughout the entire incident appeared be the result of drug intoxication. Sgt. O’Neill coordinated the medical response and worked with other officers, who rather than wait for EMS, rushed the suspect to the hospital in a police car.
Mills continued, “Police are taught to treat a knife as a deadly weapon, because a suspect armed with a knife within 21-feet of an officer is as much of a deadly threat as a suspect with a gun. In this case, the suspect armed with an eight-inch hunting knife was less than 10 feet from the officer and refused multiple commands to drop the weapon. In light of self-defense law and police training, this shooting was completely justified.”
According to official court records available to the public, the suspect armed with the eight-inch hunting knife had an active felony warrant for violating his probation at the time of the shooting and likely faced being returned to prison for the remaining seven years of a previous prison sentence if Sgt. O’Neill had arrested him. The suspect also had several previous criminal convictions on his record, including drug and weapons offenses.“Mayor Buttigieg swore an oath to ‘faithfully, impartially, and diligently discharge the duties of the office of mayor’ of South Bend but he’s been faithful only to his political interests, has not been impartial about this incident, and has diligently used this to advance his presidential campaign,” Mills concluded. “If he wants to honor the oath he took, Mayor Buttigieg will recuse himself from this matter by taking no part in any decisions, conversations, or other aspects of it.”
