Cops Crew Member, Bryce Dion, Shot and Killed during taping of an episode in Omaha.

It's probably been years since I’ve watched an episode of Cops. Even in its heyday I was not a big fan of the show. Once you've seen two or three episodes you realize that the episode you're watching is just like the one you watched the week before and the week before that and the week before that etc. But that's the way it is with any reality show, whether it's American Idol, Survivor, The Bachelor, Honey-Boo-Boo, the Bigoted Dork Dynasty guys, or the latest episode of Fun in the Wilderness  brought to you by the Queen idiot of Alaska, Sarah Palin.  Reality shows? I'm just not that into you.

Cops has been on the air for over 20 years and has had its first fatality. No it wasn't one of the boys in blue, it was one of the crew members. As bad as this is when you remember that the show has been in production for that long and this is its first fatality, that's not a bad record.

There are a lot of dangerous professions in this country. I know this to be a fact from first-hand experience. Back in the days when I was working in convenience stores I was held up two different times. The fact that I'm here writing this means just one thing: that I and some of the people I were is working with during the second robbery were damn lucky. 

On the first robbery I was working by myself. Due to the stupidity of one of the thieves I accidentally caught a glimpse of his face. When they tied me up in the back room I thought for sure I was a goner.

It's amazing that people don't realize that many of these convenient store workers who get nothing but minimum wage are working one of the most dangerous jobs we have for very little money.
So was there some supreme being looking after me? No, it was just pure dumb luck that I survived. I could just as easily have been very dead.

What makes this even worse is that Mr. Dion was killed by friendly fire.   But once again you have to wonder, was 30 shots absolutely necessary?

From Deadline Hollywood:

Omaha police chief news conference: “This was a friendly-fire situation. It was an officer’s round that struck Mr. Dion,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said at a news conference that just wrapped, discussing the shooting death of Cops crew member Bryce Dion last night during police response to a robbery at a Wendy’s restaurant.

Cortez Washington, the robbery suspect, fired the first two shots and while his weapon was discovered to be an Airsoft pistol that does not fire bullets, Schmaderer said the shots produced a muzzle flash and sounded like actual gunshots to the police officers.

“Like I said earlier, his gun was an Airsoft gun and looked and sounded like it was real,” Schmaderer said. Schmaderer said the three officers who had entered the restaurant fired at Washington who ran out of the restaurant’s east door; Dion was in the east doorway and was hit. Dion was wearing a ballistic vest, but the bullet “came in under his left arm and slipped in between the vest, where there is an open area.”

Local media have reported 30 shots were fired by officers responding to the scene. Schmaderer declined to confirm that because, he said, “it is the subject of a grand jury investigation.” But he added the reporters “inference” is that the number of shots fired by the three police officers who went into the restaurant was excessive, “and I don’t believe it was.” He vehemently denied suggestions the hail of bullets suggests the police were showing off for the Cops camera.

“Any criticism is unmerited. The grand jury will see this video, and I’m confident they will come to same conclusion,” he said of the footage the Cops crew had shot at the scene, which he said has been turned over to authorities for the investigation. The three officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, Schmaderer said, adding that a grand jury has been convened with regard to the shooting.

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