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Officers React to South Carolina Shooting

LACKAWANNA COUNTY — A Police Department in South Carolina is taking action against a white police officer caught on camera shooting to death an unarmed bl...

LACKAWANNA COUNTY -- A Police Department in South Carolina is taking action against a white police officer caught on camera shooting to death an unarmed black man.

Here in our area, officers are calling what happened in South Carolina a teachable moment for young cadets on what not to do out in the field.

Inside a classroom at Lackawanna College's Police Academy in Scranton, cadets are learning about what they'll see out on the job.

But more than what they see, they're learning how to react day in and day out.

"That ongoing critical training so that they learn how to act appropriately in high-stress situations," said Maryann Grippo, Director of Academy Operations.

Grippo said there's a code that departments use to determine what force officers need to use from just their police presence all the way up to deadly force.  An incident like the one in South Carolina is one to learn from, added Grippo.

"Every time there's a law enforcement issue in the news, it's a teachable opportunity," Grippo added. "Whether it's good or whether it's bad."

Officers at Blakely Police Department said what happened in South Carolina contradicts almost everything they were taught.

"There's nothing to take away from it other than what he did was completely and utterly wrong," said Chief Guy Salerno, Blakely Police Department.

Chief Salerno saw the video of an officer seemingly shooting an unarmed man after fleeing a traffic stop. Instantly, Salerno remembered back to his basic training on what you're supposed to do.

"Once [the victim] flees from the vehicle, you pursue him and take him into custody for fleeing from a vehicle. He cannot do that. However the way [the officer] went about it, from the way I saw, was completely illegal, unjustified and he has been arrested," Salerno added.

And Chief Salerno said instances like these are the exception to what people should find in everyday interactions with officers.

"That is not the way police officers are trained to react," he explained. "Otherwise you'd have a lot more police officers behind bars right now."

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