Dude, I'm just telling you, that it's pretty standard policy not to pursue a high speed chase through a populated area. At least it used to be. I can't speak for how they do things these days.

Usually once people think they have escaped they chill out and quit driving crazy. Probably to avoid attracting further attention as much as anything. They may not be law abiding citizens, but they probably don't drive like a bat out of hell running red lights and stop signs if nobody is chasing them.

Chief......watch the vid. After the cop car gets rammed with the trailer and blows the intersection then the police car backs off and uses caution trying the catch up. Most of the time the truck had a 2-3 block lead on the police car.

Your argument is going almost full reerun.

I'm always kind of surprised at reactions like this; "could have been kids and moms" like a dad or male getting killed would be less significant/tragic. "Could have killed somebody" works just fine.

A two to three block lead isn't enough for the guy to think he has escaped. And it's not an argument. I just stated that I know at least one former Chief of Police of a metropolitan area who would have had those cops ass in a sling for continuing to pursue a high speed chase through a heavily populated area.

No I didn't watch the video.

All I did was read the article.

It looks like I missed out on some other info.

Chill the **** out.

I didn't even watch the video yet.

In some cases backing off because of "fear of the unknown" is a chickenshit call by any police chief. This guy chose his own fate.

The officer drove through congested areas with caution and handled the situation well.

AMES, IA. — The officer who shot and killed a 19-year-old driver this week after a chase onto Iowa State University’s campus was cleared Thursday of wrongdoing, completing the investigation, officials said.

Ames Police Officer Adam McPherson “acted reasonably under very difficult circumstances and McPherson’s use of deadly force was justified,” wrote Story County Attorney Stephen Holmes in a letter to Ames Police Chief Charles Cychosz.

Holmes’ findings mean the case will not go to a grand jury, which would have heard evidence in secret and then would have decided whether prosecutors had presented enough evidence to file a criminal charge.

McPherson remains on paid administrative leave, standard procedure after a shooting.

The family of Tyler Comstock said unanswered questions remain, beyond why McPherson fired his weapon. They also want to know why McPherson, 32, continued the pursuit after a police supervisor twice suggested he back off.

Comstock, 19, led police on a chase that began around 10:25 a.m. Monday after his father reported that his work truck was stolen. Police said speeds reached nearly 70 miles per hour on city streets. Comstock’s truck, which rammed patrol cars, narrowly missed hitting other vehicles and pedestrians, according to dashboard camera videos released Thursday from two police cars.

Events unfoldedquickly. Less than four minutes passed from the time the chase began to when McPherson, just north of the Campanile on ISU’s campus, fired seven shots into the back of Comstock’s pickup cab. Comstock died from two gunshot wounds.

Holmes, the county attorney, wrote in a four-page statement that Comstock’s dangerous driving resulted in potentially five assaults with a dangerous weapon. The stolen truck, he wrote, was the dangerous weapon.

Among the evidence Holmes said he reviewed: a taped interview with McPherson, two dashboard camera videos, an independent video recording, and the results of an investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Holmes said McPherson and a second pursuing officer, ISU Police Officer Tony Atilano, showed restraint on a grassy area on Central Campus when they got out of their vehicles, ordering Comstock out of the truck without firing their weapons.

“Neither officer overreacts but they both try to order Comstock out,” Holmes wrote.

NEW: Click through key moments in the pursuit

But Comstock continued to flee. The officers got back into their cars and pursued Comstock to a wooded area. The officers tried to disable the truck by ramming it. McPherson fired only after both officers exited their disabled vehicles and found the truck’s engine revving even though it was stuck, Holmes wrote.

Holmes said officers “could not disengage” after Comstock backed a trailer he was hauling into McPherson’s car, pushing it sideways.
But twice during Monday’s chase, an unidentified police staffer suggested to McPherson that he back off the pursuit, according to dispatcher audio. The first time, McPherson is told, “If he’s that reckless coming into the college area, why don’t you back off?”

Officers then pursued the truck into the heart of ISU’s campus, in the grassy area north of the Campanile.

The police staffer again, according to the audio, suggested McPherson cut off the pursuit. “We know the suspect. We can probably back it off.” However, at that point McPherson was getting out of his squad car and telling Comstock to turn off the truck’s engine, officials said.

It’s unclear if McPherson heard the supervisor over the dispatch, Ames Police Cmdr. Geoff Huff said.

Holmes, the county attorney, wrote it is impossible to know if Comstock would have stopped driving dangerously if officers had stopped the pursuit. A recent Ames police chase of someone who drove off without paying for gas was stopped out of safety concerns. The fleeing vehicle did not slow down, and the incident ended with one teenager dead and another driver seriously injured, Holmes wrote.
The investigative process into Monday’s shooting was completed sooner than usual, officials said. It can take weeks before an investigation into a police shooting is concluded, a DCI official said Wednesday.

However, the county attorney’s decision and patrol car videos were released Thursday because dispatch audio was made public Tuesday by The Des Moines Register, Huff said.

“That unfortunately forced our hand to move quicker than we normally would have,” Huff said.

The investigative process moved faster than usual, but officials said the results were clear. The officers, placed in an impossible situation, acted reasonably, wrote Holmes, the county attorney.

“In watching the videos I can’t help but express my concern that it was only by sheer luck that no one else was seriously injured or killed by Mr. Comstock,” Holmes wrote.

It isn't chickenshit, it's trying to avoid getting innocent people killed. The guy deserved the bullet, I'm not even arguing that point. I'm just saying that by continuing the chase they were putting innocent bystanders' lives in jeopardy. They knew who the kid was, they knew where he lived. Let him get away. Quit chasing him and he more than likely quits driving like a ****ing maniac. Then go pick him up at his house later.

The dispatchers told the cops to do exactly that, for exactly the reasons I just stated. They were causing more danger to innocent bystanders by chasing him than letting him go would cause.

Thanks Bwana

Which is fully assuming that's what the kid would do. They have no idea if he's going to go on a rampage and start killing people or if he was going to go back to his house.

How much trouble would the cops be in if they backed off and 5 minutes later the kid ran over a pedestrian because he was out of his mind?

According to the investigation once the guy (not kid) backed his truck into the police car they could no longer disengage.

The fact that the kid turned into a college campus IMO raised the stakes. Nobody wants someone like that running around on a college campus.

Well, I have to admit, this is a case situation of self defense.

Stupid move by the kid for trying to challenge the cops. I don't know why he didn't just surrender?

I never like to see people get killed though. But when that person is trying to kill you and you're a cop, I guess it forces your hand to be an eye for eye, tooth for tooth, nail to nail.

Could there have been an alternative option on how they could've handled this situation? I don't know.

At about the 3:05 mark on the second dashcam vid (ISU unit) you see pedestrians trying to get out of the way when the douche is driving backwards across the grass and then through the wooden displays. This is just before he was shot. I'm sure that was also taken into consideration to fire. He had a total lack of regard for others.