A Renewed Call...?

NYC DOC patch (PatchCollector320 Tripod)

As I have said in the past, (as well as here) there is a potential for trouble when police/correction officers are allowed to take their service weapons with them wherever they go. Correction Officer Ricardo Walters, 41, of Hempstead, New York may be a perfect example. Walters was allegedly at a bus stop at 6 in the morning talking to some woman when all of a sudden he pulls out his weapon and demands her money. The woman allegedly gives him her purse then flags down the police who find Walters walking to his car and arrest him. They find that the weapon he used in the robbery was his 9-mm service revolver.

However, this is not the first time that Walters has been involved in some off-duty trouble. On April 1, 2006 Ricardo Walters shot and killed a man who was trying to break into his car at his home in Hempstead. He said that he was awoken by the car alarm, grabbed his off-duty weapon and went outside to confront the two would-be thieves. As he stepped out of his house, according to the report, one of the men fired a shot at him. Walters returned fire three times, hitting one of the men in the head while the other one fled. No gun was ever recovered from the scene and, as far as my research tells me, no one ever found the other man. It has been alleged by a commenter who claims to have some knowledge of the case that the Hempstead PD was incompetent in handling the case. This begs the question of who was this other guy, and where was this gun with which they allegedly shot at CO Walters? It might be beneficial for Hempstead PD to take a fresh look at this case given Walters's recent arrest.

It appears that Ricardo Walters has either had a string of bad luck or a penchant for getting himself into trouble. I sincerely hope that there was no cover-up involving the shooting out on Long Island in the spring of last year, but some things about the case just simply do not add up. I would urge you to write to the District Attorney of Nassau County, Kathleen Rice, and request that the case involving CO Walters back in April of last year be looked at again with a careful eye.

***NOTE*** The original post (which included a comment thread) had to be deleted because of technical difficulties with Blogger. It should be noted that someone commenting under the name of "blogher" brought up some problems with my post (such as my sarcasm which could be translated to be a personal attack on Mr. Walters). After reviewing the post again, I saw how some of my sarcastic comments could be seen as personal attacks on Mr. Walters. I just want to say that they were not meant that way, as I do not know Mr. Walters personally and thus can not comment on who he is as a person. All of this being said, I am solely going off of news reports and happened upon the information regarding both cases involving Mr. Walters and (as I have in this post) I am simply putting the information out there as clearly as I can. I will leave it up to the reader to come to his or her own conclusions. Thank you to "blogher" and "EmmGee" for the comment thread and the (mostly) civil debate.