7h ago

Pardoned January 6 rioter said ‘I’m shooting myself’ before Indiana deputy fatally shot him

www.theguardian.com Pardoned January 6 rioter said ‘I’m shooting myself’ before Indiana deputy fatally shot him

Killing of Matthew Huttle, 42, during traffic stop ‘legally justified’ and will not lead to criminal charges, lawyers say

Summary

Matthew Huttle, a 42-year-old pardoned January 6 rioter, was fatally shot by an Indiana deputy during a traffic stop 6 days after Trump granted clemency to over 1,500 Capitol attackers.

Huttle, previously sentenced to six months in prison, was pulled over for driving 70mph (113km/h) in a 55mph zone and faced arrest as a habitual traffic offender.

According to newly released body camera footage, Huttle said "I'm shooting myself" before reaching for a loaded gun in his car, prompting the deputy to fire.

Prosecutors ruled the shooting "legally justified." His death adds to mounting legal issues among pardoned rioters.

51 comments

Oh look, a good Nazi!

Looks like the trash is taking itself out these days!

Police Activity posted the bodycam footage.
https://youtu.be/zf6BgUd86I4
It’s under 7 minutes and when the shooting happens it’s blurred out. It’s relatively tame from a gore point of view, but it’s still a video of someone being shot so watch with care.
Here’s my synopsis of the footage for people that don’t want to watch it themselves, you can skip the preamble if you just want to understand the shooting. In my opinion the officer acts reasonable, friendly, and professional throughout.
Preamble
Officer pulls the guy over for going 70 in a 55
Guy offers up unprompted that he’s a J6 defendant that was recently pardoned
Officer doesn’t seem to care one way or the other asks for license
Guy says he’s coming from church and his mother’s grave. He doesn’t have a license and has been trying to get a hardship license, produces an expired license
Officer asks how often he’s been caught driving suspended
Guy says “in my life”
Officer clarifies “recently”
Guy indicates not much
Officer goes back to his patrol car to run the guys information.
Shooting
Officer asks the guy out of the vehicle, they go to the rear of his vehicle
Officer explains that he’s reached habitual traffic offender status because of driving suspended.
Guy begs for leniency
Officer explains its now reached the point of being a felony and he has no choice but to arrest him.
Guy says he’s not going back to jail
Guy runs away from the rear of the vehicle and jumps back into the drivers seat
Officer gives foot chase back to drivers door, he provides verbal commands to stop
Before the officer can reach the guy, he says “I’m shooting myself” and reaches for something in the passenger seat.
Officer says “no no no” and fires three shots at the guy.
This is shown from his bodycam and also from his dashcam.
A felon retreated into a vehicle, stating he wouldn’t go back to jail, produced a firearm, and threatened violence. Was the guy lying about shooting himself, was his plan to fire the firearm at himself or the officer? Based on my view of the video, the officer acted within his lawful authority, was polite and professional, and only used force consistent with what the situation required. But I’d encourage you to watch the evidence and make up your own mind.
There are a ton of bad cops and awful shootings. I don’t like J6 but I don’t see this as justified because the guy is an asshole, but justified because of his actions at this traffic stop.
- Honestly feel really bad for the guy. He goes to end his own life and gets murdered for it. He was right at the edge of what he could handle and the traffic stop and arrest was enough to put him over the edge.
  Whether this sounds crazy or not, I possess the empathy enough to understand exactly how this person felt in his last moments.
  
  Yea I feel bad for him too, you can tell when the officer tells him he has no choice to arrest him that he’s realizing how badly he just messed up.
  In his mind he was about to lose his pardon and go back into the prison system.
  But to me that also makes me think the officer is justified in his use of force. People that think everything is ruined are unpredictable and he was reaching for violence. While he was saying he was going to turn that violence on himself, there’s no particular reason to trust what he’s saying. I think there’s a very real possibility he gets the gun saying “I’m shooting myself” but then once he has it maybe shooting the cop sounds a bit better.
  If I’m the officer I’m not rolling the dice to see if he points the gun at his head or mine.
  And as much as I can empathize with the feeling of fear and loss in that moment, ultimately he made a bunch of choices that led to that. He did whatever he did to get his license suspended, he drove on a suspended license, and even in this instance he broke the speed limit knowing that the results of even a minor infraction could lead to the loss of his freedom.
  At some point he has to be responsible for the consequences of his actions.
  
  Suicide by cop is definitely a thing.
  
  Why do you cry for someone who achieved their goals?
  Lived life on his own terms. ✅
  Didn't want to return to jail. ✅
  Wanted to be dead. ✅
- Officer says “no no no” and fires three shots at the guy.
  I say the same thing when I see some asshole about to steal my kill in Call of Duty

Oh well

If anyone is interested, the Weird Little Guys podcast did an episode on him.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-weird-little-guys-201395214/episode/a-short-lived-pardon-264670286/

Instant Win American Bingo Card:
B. Loaded handgun in the car. I. Total disregard for road safety. N. Convicted criminal pardoned by convicted criminal president. G. Mental health crisis resolved by cop shooting. O. Legally justified homicide.
We're doing great. Good job all around, no notes.
- The cop prevented the driver from committing suicide.
  
  Only so he could go to heaven
  
  Hero.
  For reals though, ain't no way I'm letting a clearly deranged j6er grab a gun near me no matter what he says. Definitely a clean shoot (as evidenced by the fact they immediately released the bodycam footage).
- Last sentence is chef’s kiss.

I'm starting to think those rioters had some issues.
- Maybe not the best decision making skills

He’d still be alive if trump hadn’t pardoned him.
- Then I suppose the pardon did some good for the world. Shame it did more bad though.

Mission failed successfully?

Most American headline ever.
- Naw. There’s no mention of the cop shouting “Murica! Fuck Yeah!”

Every one of those fucking traitors should shoot themselves.

I think it's important to point out that this is not justifiable because he was a jan 6 rioter, but because he was reaching for a gun.
It's a small distinction, but an important one, as justifications can easily stretch to encompass things they shouldn't. If it's ok for an officer to kill someone at a traffic stop solely because they were at the riot, then it won't be long before it's justification for killing someone at a protest, or just for speaking out.
So good riddance to bad rubbish in this case, but be wary of dismissing a police officer killing someone just because we don't like them.
- It's not OK for a cop to shoot him because he was at a riot. It's OK for a cop to shoot him because he's a traitor that tried to steal democracy away from the nation. He was an enemy of the state and the people.
  The only good nazi is a dead nazi, and I hope his fate befalls every single one of those traitors.

I don't think I will be mourning the death of any jan6 insurrectionist.

Police officer: “And I took that personally.”
- "Paid leave and I get to kill someone!"

Any idea who's the younger traitor pardoned by Trump? Trying to estimate the maximum year for "pardoned rioter" news title.

The police officer even sprinted after him and tried to wrestle him down so he can’t get the gun. Kinda feel bad for the police officer. Which doesn’t happen often.

Suicide is a crime. The cop successfully stopped a crime. /s
- Right, because that guy couldn’t have been lying about his intent as he reached for a weapon.
- At least he can go to heaven now! /s

"K. Bye." - Everyone who's not traitor scum.

Karma is a bitch...

No big loss there.

My question is why was he “running” and what did he kill himself to not confeont.
- Probably hard to say but related to very bad mental health

will the deputy be charged with robbery

Good shot, officer. Nothing of value was lost.

It is astonishing to see the amount of cheering on of a cop shooting someone who just announced they were going to kill themselves.
In any other circumstance, you'd all be up in arms over this. I am ashamed to be a part of this community sometimes. There are zero circumstances where a police officer should shoot someone dead unless their life is literally at risk.
- I'll cheer anytime a traitor to the people dies, liberal.
- Uh the officer's life was at risk.
  Are you implying the cop should have let the guy grab his gun?
  Guy was a J6 rioter. By definition, stupid and crazy. Prone to making bad decisions, including a vocal declaration of suicidal intent to a police officer. What stops the guy from putting the gun to his head, then thinking "hey wait, I'm on Team Trump! Surely he'll pardon me for this too!" And then shooting the cop instead?
  Should the cop have run away? Now you've got a J6 rioter with a gun in a stolen police cruiser.
  Please run us through the scenario in which it's a good idea to let the mentally unstable rioter grab his gun.
  And I'm not cheering the cop, either. I'm betting the cop is a fellow Republican, because...cop... but also because he foolishly trusted the J6 rioter to act reasonably and rationally. When the information presented by his computer stated this individual has a rap sheet and this situation was going to become an arrest, cop could have properly and immediately performed the arrest by standing between guy and car door then cuffing guy, thus not allowing guy the opportunity to make another stupid decision.
  Cop treated this 70 in a 55 like it was a normal boring 70 in a 55 by a normal boring citizen, and this is what happened.
- The "othering" of opponents is how human deal with conflict and prepare themselves for violence since time immemorial.
  Dehumanization is a really slippery second step. Fascists aren't the only people that find themselves doing it.
  This isn't meant as an excuse, just an explanation. IMO, this fatal shooting is not an act to be celebrated.
  
  Yeah, I really dislike how easy it is to dehumanized people. Regardless of this guys shitty politics, or what he did in the past, he didn't deserve to be shot dead during a traffic stop.
- This is actually in part an issue of a misunderstanding of the dynamics of one of the situation law enforcement and people forced into dangerous circumstances face. Ever played that game where you have your hands out and a person puts their hands under yours and you have to withdraw your hands before you get slapped? It's the same principle. Reaction is slower than action. When someone states they have a weapon and they reach for it you could be dead in about a second, maybe two if they pull it and instead fire at you. This means your "safe" reaction space is about a second to a half second long.
  If you duck out of the way you get a person with a weapon who can choose to turn it on bystanders or retaliate by getting you into another situation where you have even less reaction space. While it is realized that cops, particularly US ones tend to escalate situations more quickly in part that is because in the US there's a higher chance someone is packing heat and in part because of a culture of standing one's ground. When we are talking about ACAB events a lot of the time those deaths occur in circumstances where the cops either should not have been there at all, escalated far too quickly or the death happened when the person was restrained and no longer an active threat. In Canada for instance improper use of force applies to everyone. If you had to be violent as a citizen, including as a cop then you are vulnerable to legal reprocussions unless your use of force was judged appropriate to mitigate damage to life. Not property, only life. If you exhaust every other de-escalating option only then you are cleared to use violence but the initiation of this reaction window is the point of no return. People who experience this window basically operate strictly on instinct and often are traumatized to some degree after the fact.
  In this instance the officer's life was at risk the moment the gun was indicated to be in the vehicle and the person in question stated they would use it. Could the entire traffic stop have been a series of inappropriate escalations on behalf of the officer, yes. Is there zero justification for an officer shooting this guy? No. We don't know the first part, you would have to pick apart the senario starting from when he stopped the car. But if you end up in a situation where you have a gun trained on you and you escalate the situation further by saying you are reaching for a gun then basically this is effectively how you suicide.
- Hypocrites showing their true colors. It's never been about wether the shooting was justified or not but rather how they feel about the victim.
- Also if a bystanders life is at risk. That would be the ideal implementation in a similar system IMO anyways, I don't think this is the way we should be dealing with problems as a whole though, e.g. every cop having a gun is unnecessary and harmful.

51 comments