Law enforcement guys, if police wish to question someone about his involvement in a shooting, please comment on talking without counsel present. Never ok? Sometimes? If I had to shoot for my life, when police arrived, I think that I would give minimal info and then state in a courteous manner that I desired counsel present for further discussion.
What’s the rule of thumb in such matters?
ANYTHING YOU SAY CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU . . .
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS . . . invoke your right to counsel pursuant to the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments to the Constitution.
My lawyer is on this site. He shoots, competes and has trained with Vickers and Defoor. He has specifically told me to shut the fuck up if I am involved in a defensive shooting.
He is also licensed to practice in three states around me 
Never say a dang thing - ever. Most cops will understand, but definitely not all.
You have the right to remain silent. Once you ask for your council keep your mouth shut. Most people are going to want to talk. Don’t talk. FOP tells us not to say much more than I saw a weapon and then I requested medics.
It’s not to your benefit to talk without a legal expert there as a buffer who works for you.
You should also look up cases where interrogators get false confessions out of people. There’s simply no reason to talk to them.
I’ve been told to request medical assistance, for yourself, immediately. You’ve gone through a very stressful, traumatic experience and should be thoroughly checked out prior to answering any questions, with your attorney present.
That’s all fine and dandy, but what if Akpopo is one of the officers?
Don’t talk to the cops, with or without counsel.
If you don’t have it, say nothing.
If you have counsel, let him or her do the talking.
My name is John Doe and I am having breathing issues, possible heart-attack, please secure me an ambulance. At the hospital contact your lawyer.
Lying is not something you want to do.
I don’t see any reason to lie about one’s name, heart condition, chest pains, or whatever.
Simply state: I am the victim, I was attacked, I feared for my life, and I defended myself to stop the attack. I will cooperate fully once I have consulted with legal counsel
Then STFU
I keep a law firm on retainer who specializes in self-defense case law. They have a 24hr hotline I can call 365 days a year and one of their attorneys will meet with me anywhere in the state, the number is in our cell phones and I carry their card on my person anytime I’m in public. OP, If you are interested let me know and I will PM you their information as I see you are a TX resident. They have various payment options, for the wife and I it’s a nominal annual fee but in the event one of us are involved in a shooting our legal fees are covered 100%. There are people who have won their self-defense case but went bankrupt as the fees can be in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I have been under a homicide investigation before; though it was not a shooting incident. In that particular incident I contacted the President of my FOP Lodge immediately after FD took over care of the subject. We have multiple attorneys on retainer who do nothing but high profile LE cases. When I was called in to be interviewed by our CID/PSU I waited until my attorney was present before beginning the interview. The investigators were professional, understanding, and waited for my attorney to arrive.
It does not work that way, you can confer with counsel before and during a interview but any responses to a interview question has to be answer only by you unless your pleading the 5th.
Allows you to clam down and be attended to, but don’t be surprised if the L/E’s guarding you at the hospital refuse to allow you to make any phone calls until your at a secure interview location.
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After you have to shoot someone, I don’t think that would be a lie, except for Chuck Norris of course.
I will defer to those more knowledgable than me, but here is what I was taught. I started paying for professional instruction in the mid 90’s. most of the instructors with my group have LE, SWAT, and/or military background. The recommended policy for years was to just say absolutely nothing. But here’s the thing: When LE rolls onto the scene, there’s a dead guy full of bullet holes on the ground, and YOU are holding (or have re-holstered) the gun that killed him, if you then clam up, plead the 5th, or say “lawyer”, the LE present will have no choice but to arrest and charge you with murder. Being the good guys that we all are, we would likely beat the charges, but not without a tremendous expenditure of time, effort and money. And you will still have an arrest for murder on your record, even if the charges are dropped without a trial.
I was taught to be VERY careful what you say, but do say a few choice words and at least create the appearance of cooperating with LE. This MIGHT prevent you from even being charged. Something along the lines of, “He said he was going to kill me and I had no other choice but to defend myself…” Something to let the LE on the scene know that YOU are the good guy, and the dead scumbag was the bad guy, but without a lot of potentially incriminating details. If pressed for details then, “I’m really shaken up by this man’s criminal attack against me, and would rather make specific comments at a later time with my legal council present.” This should make sense to any LE responding to a call like this.
With so many possible variables, its impossible to present an exact script, but the opinion that I got was that its important to let LE know that this was self defense, you were attacked and had no other choice but self defense, and due to the high stress nature of the incident you’d rather not spill your guts right then and there.
Any current LE or informed civilians, please shoot this down if you believe it to be incorrect. This is the advice I was given by LE, and it is what I currently plan to follow, if the need ever arises.
Ok since talking to another LEO the advise I gave is for what FOP tells it’s members but for Joe six pack give a very brief narrative of what happened. Something like the guy was trying to rob me and I was scared. Most important thing is don’t lie. If you do lie about the smallest thing it could cause you a hell of an issue later.
Dan
Untruthful statements aren’t thing to make when creating a first impression
I plan to say “Officer, I plan to fully cooperate with your investigation, but I hope you understand that I decline to answer any questions until I have my lawyer present.”
I plan to say “What? I can’t hear you! My suppressor stamp hasn’t come in yet so I’m temporarily deaf!”