‘Could have told you one day he would be killed by police.’
An account from former Madison police officer and security expert Adrian Alan:
“The [police] officer involved [in the Corey Ruiz case] is someone I field trained many years ago. … He was solid back then and he is today. By all accounts and by my observations, he is calm, competent, level-headed, ethical, and has demonstrated good judgement and leadership. I have never heard anyone say a bad thing about him. He’s a good cop and a good man.
“The suspect was breaking into cars, fled, resisted, fought and SUDDENLY produced a DEADLY WEAPON at arm’s length. He essentially AMBUSHED the officers with a knife. He wasn’t standing 30 feet away with the knife out telling officers not to approach him and then they closed on him. NO. He pulled it suddenly when they were hands on and slashed at them from arms length.
“He cut the officer who shot him. He was an immediate threat to the officer who shot him and all three other officers who were fighting with him. That is clear legal justification for using deadly force.
‘Cops don’t use deadly force because it’s deadly
“They use it because it’s reliable. The Taser was fired a split second before the gunshots. Less lethal and de-escalation can only work or be safely used when there is time — time to switch weapons or tactics if the less-lethal approach fails. If a less-lethal tool or de-escalation fails and you don’t have time to switch, you’re now facing death or grave injury with no time left to protect yourself. It’s too late, your fate is sealed.
“Time requires distance. There is no time to evaluate if the Taser is effective when a man is slashing you with a knife at arm’s length.”
The ‘Exceptional Mr. Ruiz’ served 3 years, not 55
Madison firearms security consultant Adrian Alan downloaded Corey Durrell Ruiz’s 25 individual CCAP cases and used A-I to analyze and tally. Mr. Alan concludes that Ruiz was sentenced to a total of three years in prison even though his crimes over the course of his 19-year adult criminal career statutorily exposed him to 271 years — subtracting concurrent sentences, make that 110 years. Given that Wisconsin often splits the sentences in half (half in prison, half probation) equals 55 years. Which, had that been imposed, Mr. Ruiz would still be alive and Madison would have been safer.
We resume Adrian Alan’s account:
“I could have looked at the suspect’s record and told you that one day he would be killed by police. He had countless arrests and convictions for resisting arrest, resisting arrest causing injury to officers, and threatening judges / officers. He had other violent convictions and was a prolific criminal. He had no respect for anyone in our justice system, nor fear of consequences for his behavior. And why would he? The system reinforced his belief that fighting the police was acceptable. It was only a matter of time until circumstance or his escalation resulted in police having to use deadly force.
“Everyone wants to scrutinize the split second decision the officers made. Where is the scrutiny for the judges and the DAs who had him in court over the last decade? His death was preventable, I agree. He simply needed to receive a FRACTION of prison time for what he was facing. He should have been in prison yesterday, instead he was out againmin our community, breaking into cars.
“The cops arrest him, bring him to court, explain to the court he is dangerous, a risk to the public and hurt them when they arrested him. He threatens the cops and judges, showing he doesn’t believe in the authority of the law or the court – and the court releases him into the community again and again.”
Adrian Alan’s bottom Line: “There are dozens, maybe hundreds of people like him in our community today. It’s actually shocking this doesn’t happen more often.”
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