It wasn't that long ago that people were "cheering" the "hero dad" in Texas who beat off his daughter's alleged child molester, killing him in the process. We tend to like these stories for the obvious reason: It sets a terrible situation right. A child is being hurt. A parent rushes to the rescue. The parent gets revenge on the child's attacker. All is well with the world again. But what if that scenario goes horribly awry? What if the person who hurt the child genuinely did it by accident? What if the father who rushes to the rescue is overcome with the understandable desire to beat the bejesus out of the person who hurt his child? And what if the person who hurt the child just happened to be a cop who was carrying a gun? There's no "happy" ending to this story. But it might teach everyone a lesson about using fists instead of the law.
Saturday night, an off-duty police officer was riding down the street on his motorcycle when apparently a little girl darted out from nowhere in front of his bike. He intentionally "ditched" the bike in an effort to avoid hitting her, but it was too late. His bike slammed into 4-year-old Taniyah Middleton, as well as her 18-year-old cousin, who had run out to help her.
More from The Stir: 3-Year-Old Kills Father & Provides Heartbreaking Gun Safety Reminder
The cop, despite being injured himself, reportedly began trying to help the little girl. This is when the girl's father, Christopher Middleton, ran out of a nearby restaurant, saw the scene, and began taking out his fury on the man who had hurt his daughter.
Reportedly the man identified himself as a police officer, but the infuriated man just kept pummeling. Then the 18-year-old cousin joined in. About to lose consciousness from the beating, the cop pulled out his gun and fired, killing the father.
This horrible scenario brings up a whole lot of questions: How did the little girl get out of the restaurant? Why was she running across the street? Why would the cop feel his life was so in danger that he had to fire into the father to get the fight to stop? What about firing into the air? Or, at the most, his leg?
The little girl is recovering from her injuries, as is the police officer. The tragedy is being investigated. But it does make you wonder if this all could have been avoided if the father had called police rather than begun lashing out physically. When it comes to our kids, it's not easy to let our heads, not our hands, be in charge. But it might be for the best.
What do you think the father should have done?
Image via Aranami/Flickr
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
KStew Refuses to Shower
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Comments 347
To the person that said you wouldn't know what you would do in that situation is BS. Any "good" parent would rush to their child and scream for help. I was hit by a car in front of my house after I got the mail. My mother was halfway down the driveway and turned around to call for help after the lady that hit me told her to, then she rushed to my side until the firemen got there. At no point did she harm the woman that hit me, in fact a few years later my sister and that lady's daughter were such good friends my mom let my sister ride in the car with her.
Regarding this case, I am very curious what race the police officer is and if that had something to do with why the dad beat him?
Law enforcement officers aren't allowed to just "shoot to maim," which is what firing into the father's leg would have been. If they're going to use deadly force, it has to be shoot to kill.
What should the father have done? Ran to help his daughter instead of beating someone else. Who knows how long this child lived before dying...if she was alive at the time, she was alone dying or with strangers.
Sounds reasonable. Negligent dad lets kid run into the road. Then has the nerve to start beating on someone when an accident happens- instead of attending to his hurt daughter? If you are asshole enough to do something like that, then you should go into it fully prepared to take a dirt nap. Because sometimes the other person may just be armed. I think the officer showed admirable restraint only killing one of the attackers.
Oh and Jademom- the kid isn't dead. It doesn't sound like she has any critical injuries at all. So dad did all that foolishness for nothing.