2nd officer says Oklahoma man police killed wasn’t a threat
The Associated Press - October 27, 2019 9:08 am
Image: The Oklahoman
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A second Oklahoma City police officer has testified that an unarmed man wasn’t a threat when a fellow officer fatally shot him after the victim called 911 threatening suicide.
Keith Sweeney is charged with murder in the 2017 killing of 29-year-old Dustin Pigeon, who was apparently trying to set himself on fire with lighter fluid when police arrived.
The Oklahoman reports that Officer Troy Nitzky testified on Friday that he didn’t see Pigeon as a threat. Sgt. Erik Howell testified on Thursday that Pigeon didn’t have a gun or a knife and that he didn’t “observe any threatening acts.”
Defense attorney Gary James has said that Sweeney didn’t know Pigeon was unarmed because the other officers didn’t notify him by radio and that Sweeney made the proper decision “based on the information he was given.”