Re: James Rooney Shooting
Lauren Ritchie ALWAYS trying to get ya'll....if you were the Sheriffs Office you could anything you want illegally and she wouldn't raise an eye. All about agendas eh Lauren :wink:
Re: James Rooney Shooting
Dear Guest,
Since when is it an agenda to seek and report the truth? A wise person once said "The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.(Ayn Rand). If there was no one to seek and report the truth how often would the truth be known? "Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action."(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). Do not be ignorant. Praise is due to Ms. Ritchie for looking beyond the lies and finding the truth. Guest, is the the agenda you fear or the truth?
Today I read a very interesting and heartening vision statement. Chief Broadway, do you remember the pledge your made to the citizens of Clermont when you became the chief of police. As a reminder, read the Clermont Police Department Vision Statement:
VISION STATEMENT
The vision and mission of the Clermont Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in the City of Clermont by working cooperatively with the community to enforce the laws, prevent crime and reduce fear. Our mandate is to do so with incontestable integrity and honor, always conducting ourselves with the highest ethical standards to maintain public trust.
We will be an effective and efficient deterrent to crime in Clermont, united in our effort to make our City a better place to live and work. We will be a Department which carries out its responsibilities in a caring and courteous manner, always mindful of the dignity and human rights of all individuals. We will be a model law enforcement agency, accredited by the State. We are committed to rewarding our employees for creativity, hard work, and being responsive to the needs of our community. We will treat our employees and our citizens with dignity and respect, continually striving to meet their needs. We will operate with fiscal prudence as we effectively manage our resources, while providing the highest level of service and protection to our citizens.
Core Values
Integrity
Honor
Courage
Professionalism
Service Above Self
Chief Broadway, please do not reward your employee, James Rooney, for his "creativity" in regards to the incident with a dead citizen of your city. Show the respect and dignity through proceeding with an investigation into this incident. Remember, your core values. Integrity, honor, courage, professionalism and service above yourself and your employee James Rooney. You wanted the job and now you have it. Chief of Police in this wonderful town of Clermont. Now all the citizens want is for you to act like it and follow through on your promises, nay pledge, that you made when you got the position you wanted. A sign across from your office has said "Will the real chief of police please stand up?". Well I'm waiting for you to make your stand.
Re: James Rooney Shooting
Dear Chief Broadway,
It is clear there is a way to find out if certain parts of James Rooney's wild tale is true. Is he the "hero" of the city? Test the DNA. If what Rooney's says is true his DNA is on the barrel of that gun. If not? Well then I guess we will then know the truth. Hero or villain? Is he a good officer or is the the dirtiest cop on your force? Mental defect or character defect? It's your job to find out.
Find below the second part of the article about an incident that occurred involving Clermont Police Officer James Rooney.
Second of two parts.
Joshua Waldron was no angel on earth.
But last fall, thanks to his medication, his mother had been celebrating the return of the cheerful boy she remembered just before she lost him for good at the age of 21.
Joshua Waldron at his graduation from East Ridge High School in Clermont.
Clermont must get to bottom of shooting by police officer in park
Waldron, the father of a 3-year-old son, took his own life as law-enforcement officers swarmed into Clermont because they thought he had been in a gun battle with an officer there.
He hadn't.
Forensic analysis by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed that the only bullet Waldron fired that December day was the one that killed him. The only person shooting in the firefight described by Clermont police Officer James Rooney was Rooney himself.
Sunday's column detailed tests and sworn witness statements that cast more doubt on the wild story that Officer Rooney told. He claimed that Waldron struck him in the forehead with the barrel of a Saturday night special and then held the pistol to the officer's head, where Rooney heard the telltale click of a misfire.
State firearms analysts couldn't find any evidence of a misfire, though, and no agents or other officers mentioned injuries to Rooney's forehead.
Waldron was found shot within minutes of Rooney's approaching him in William McKinley Park, across from Clermont Elementary School, to inform Waldron that he wasn't allowed to smoke even though smoking in public parks in Clermont is perfectly legal. Waldron's death was later ruled a suicide.
FDLE's inquiry was limited to providing information to determine whether a crime was committed, and the State Attorney's Office ruled there was not.
Now, it's up to Clermont police Chief Chuck Broadway to determine whether Rooney told the truth, followed department rules and acted properly. Broadway is planning to open an internal investigation, but he seems less than enthusiastic about it. Perhaps that's because Rooney and his backers succeeded in running off the previous police chief when he stood up to their unprofessional behavior.
But the public trust should rise above politics. Ensuring that the city's police officers are honest and that they treat people with respect is Broadway's job. If the chief can't or won't do a thorough inquiry, he should ask the Sheriff's Office to handle it.
Clermont needs to investigate because Rooney, who dramatically changed his story about the shooting within 24 hours, has a history of untruthfulness.
Consider that the officer was fired and arrested on charges of petty theft and forgery in 2005 for signing a doctor's note so that he could collect holiday pay. The physician declined to testify in court, so the charges were dropped and Rooney was reinstated.
Now Rooney, who declined to be interviewed, is telling differing stories about the incident in the park. On Dec. 11, Rooney gave specific accounts of Waldron's firing repeatedly at him. He even told one detective he felt "the wind" from one of the bullets. But on Dec. 12, in a sworn statement to an FDLE agent, Rooney variously said he "thought" Waldron fired and that he "believed" the suspect pulled the trigger.
"There's no doubt in my mind he wanted me dead," Rooney said in his sworn statement to FDLE. "He was out to kill me."
Really? With what? Evidence shows it wasn't with the weapon he was carrying.
Is a person who vividly describes a nonexistent gunfight, and then backs off his story, fit to serve as a police officer? Should an officer who cannot hit his target after firing an undetermined number of rounds by his own account at least two from less than six feet away be back on the street without additional firearms training?
Among other unanswered questions from the FDLE report:
Rooney stated that Waldron admitted having a marijuana cigarette, called a blunt, in his pocket. A "green leafy substance" was collected as part of the evidence but was never tested to determine what it was.
Lab technicians were able to get a small amount of DNA from the gun that killed Waldron. They determined it came from a male but they ruled out Waldron as that man. So whose DNA was it? Does it indicate that someone else had a role in Waldron's death?
Family members said they were certain immediately that Waldron hadn't fired at the officer. He didn't have it in him, they said.
He had "given up" in high school, but his mother and grandmother fought to keep him in class. At 19, he graduated from East Ridge High School in Clermont a moment his mother described as one of the two proudest of his life. The other was the birth of his son, Dasan.
Waldron worked when he could get jobs but was unemployed at the time of his death. Shortly before, he had begun taking medication to help with depression and emotional troubles.
"He was back to eating, back to smiling, back to sleeping back to being Josh," said his mother, Tina Hobson, 49. "He saw his son almost every day. That boy was his world."
She said she didn't know Waldron was carrying a gun when he went to the park to wait for his son to come out of a nearby day care. But she said he told her that a man had been threatening him, and he was afraid. A note in Waldron's handwriting, dated the day he died, advised police to consider the man as "the main suspect" if Waldron were killed.
However, that man was not in McKinley Park the day Waldron died. Rooney was.
And within minutes of their encounter, Waldron was found face up, sprawled underneath a big oak in woods about three blocks from the park, one bullet in his brain. Twelve hours later, his family took him off life support and donated his organs, saving what they were told was four lives, including that of a 7-year-old dying of liver failure.
In Waldron's pocket, police found a disposable camera. His mother said his plan for that afternoon had been to snap family photographs of himself and his son at the park where he, too, had played as a child. No pictures had been taken.
Lritchie@tribune.com. Lauren invites you to send her a friend request on Facebook at facebook.com/laurenonlake.
Re: James Rooney Shooting
Lauren
Why never an negative article on the LCSO, nothing on the pizza kid the K-9 guy shot, an article on Borders opponent's code violation during the last election but nothing on the LT from the county who bought his kid a computer on the county credit card and paid it out of sheriff funds then gets to retire with a pension?? I'm not saying the Clermont cop should not be investigated but what's up with the head in the sand sheriff's office agenda?
Re: James Rooney Shooting
The incident in Clermont wasn't given a fair investigation. I feel for the family because they have many unanswered questions. Hopefully Broadway will do his job! Rooney is for sure a questionable cop!!! It appears theres a lot of questionable cops in Clermont. Lauren did a great job in her articles but it still didn't get to the bottom of what really happened. Nor will we ever know because the investigation isn't being done. No matter what a young man is dead and a cop told lies and got away with it. May he sleep at night knowing he didn't tell the truth!! Someone in the department should speak up because there are probably a couple that know exactly what happened.
Re: James Rooney Shooting
Quote:
Originally Posted by live life
Lauren did a great job in her articles but it still didn't get to the bottom of what really happened. Nor will we ever know because the investigation isn't being done. No matter what a young man is dead and a cop told lies and got away with it.
Ahhh yes he was another, "fine young man who had finally turned his life around and becoming a great family man", because all "FINE YOUNG FAMILY MEN GO TO A PARK AND SMOKE WEED". You're as big a POS as Lauren Richtie and the dirtbag who's dead.
Re: James Rooney Shooting
Remember~ what you say about others... actually says a lot more about YOU! Truth be known reports have shown that his toxicology screen was NEGATIVE along with the others that he has had over the last two years. As you read in the article the so called blunt was NEVER tested wonder why that is? Lauren is great at finding out the truth. Her article hits it right on. Theres more to the imaginary gun fight. No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, people can change. Oh thats right your perfect you have never made mistakes in your life. Don't ever use somebody's past against them. We ALL have pasts. Who are you to judge the life they lived...nobody is perfect including you!!There are 3 sides to every story... 1-How one person tells it 2- How the other person tells it 3- How it REALLY happened. People only lie because they cant handle the truth;they lie because they cant face the mistakes they have made. It's crazy how we find the lies so easy to believe, but we can almost never seem to believe the truth.Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see. Words can come as quick as lies, and what you see can easily be mistaken for something it's not.Have a great day!I pray for the family who lost this young man no matter what because losing someone is always painful!!!
Re: James Rooney Shooting
Lauren it appears that guest has an issue with you investigating and reporting the truth, or trying to get questions that need to be answered.Or is he afraid the truth will come out... Because no one has the balls to stand up and say we want answers. Guest its people like you that hide behind the computer and make comments about what you have read in the newspaper or heard on television without knowing the whole truth.Media isnt always fair to the stories they run. Amazing how you just assume that I am a pos along with lauren, and the young man who is deceased. How do you know that? Just from what you have read or heard? You resort to calling names, how old are we? In my opinion and thats just my opinion the officer should be investigated, the young man did have a past but if I read right he was turning his life around. Everyone makes mistakes. My heart goes out to the little boy that lost his father. OR ARE YOU JUST THAT COLD HEARTED TOO? Or could you be speaking of the young man as a dirt bag because you know him, maybe guest is rooney making posts or a rooney buddy.Either way THANK YOU LAUREN I love reading your articles I look forward to them. Keep up the great job!! Keep asking those questions that need to be asked.
Re: James Rooney Shooting
Quote:
Originally Posted by live life
Remember~ what you say about others... actually says a lot more about YOU! Truth be known reports have shown that his toxicology screen was NEGATIVE along with the others that he has had over the last two years. As you read in the article the so called blunt was NEVER tested wonder why that is? Lauren is great at finding out the truth. Her article hits it right on. Theres more to the imaginary gun fight. No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, people can change. Oh thats right your perfect you have never made mistakes in your life. Don't ever use somebody's past against them. We ALL have pasts. Who are you to judge the life they lived...nobody is perfect including you!!There are 3 sides to every story... 1-How one person tells it 2- How the other person tells it 3- How it REALLY happened. People only lie because they cant handle the truth;they lie because they cant face the mistakes they have made. It's crazy how we find the lies so easy to believe, but we can almost never seem to believe the truth.Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see. Words can come as quick as lies, and what you see can easily be mistaken for something it's not.Have a great day!I pray for the family who lost this young man no matter what because losing someone is always painful!!!
Toxicology reports..where is your FACTUAL basis for the results?