Off-Duty Cop Crashes Motorcycle Into Little Girl Then Kills Her Enraged Dad

by Kiri Blakeley August 13, 2012 at 3:45 PM

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.

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

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Filed Under: accidents, crime

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kiri Blakeley

is a journalist, author, blogger, and all-around opinionista. Her book, Can't Think Straight: A Memoir of Mixed-Up Love, is available now.

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Comments 347

Facebook comment from Leona Boudin

September 4, 2012 at 6:00 AM

If someone is coming at you so angry his hair is on fire, you need to diffuse the situation, but I won't be surprised if the officer is brought up on excessive force charges. I feel real bad for the family, no dad, no daughter, just trauma and grief. So sad, so very sad.

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Facebook comment from Jaysin R Clifton

September 4, 2012 at 9:16 PM

no right are you crazy he suffered a trauma and was clearly unable to handle the situation the cop was susposed to be trained to handle high stress situations and not shoot unarmed people who may have thought hi daughter dead and whats wrong with mace or stun guns, i mean some cops are just dieing to use their gun so they get that rush you hear them talk about when they take down someone,maybe the enraged cops beating rodney king would tell us what they would have done

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Nonmember comment from lola

September 5, 2012 at 7:10 AM

The officer was justified. The father in this matter is an idiot and negligent. I feel sorry for this little girl.

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Nonmember comment from not braindead

September 5, 2012 at 1:01 PM

1) You don't have to be driving recklessly to hit a child running into the street. In most of these types of darting accidents, there simply is not enough time or distance to prevent impact. This is why it's the parents' responsibilities to watch their children. 2) The normal response by anyone with ANY intelligence would be to FIRST attend to your child, not leave them possibly bleeding to death so that you can go violently and ILLEGALLY assaulting another human being. 3) Those people saying the cop should have taken the beating like a man should not even be allowed to waste oxygen for the rest of us. So you're involved in an accident and the honorable thing is to sit there and LET yourself be possibly killed? If you truly believe that maybe it's for the better. Clean up the gene pool for the rest of us. 4) Once and for all, shooting in the air is not only illegal but irresponsible. How many times have innocent people been killed by random bullets coming down from the sky during new years or mardi gras? 5) I feel sorry for the little girl, but not for the irrational father.

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Nonmember comment from unbraindead

September 5, 2012 at 1:11 PM

) You don't have to be driving recklessly to hit a child running into the street. In most of these types of darting accidents, there simply is not enough time or distance to prevent impact. This is why it's the parents' responsibilities to watch their children. 2) The normal response by anyone with ANY intelligence would be to FIRST attend to your child, not leave them possibly bleeding to death so that you can go violently and ILLEGALLY assaulting another human being. 3) Those people saying the cop should have taken the beating like a man should not even be allowed to waste oxygen for the rest of us. So you're involved in an accident and the honorable thing is to sit there and LET yourself be possibly killed? If you truly believe that maybe it's for the better. Clean up the gene pool for the rest of us. 4) Once and for all, shooting in the air is not only illegal but irresponsible. How many times have innocent people been killed by random bullets coming down from the sky during new years or mardi gras? 5) I feel sorry for the little girl, but not for the irrational father.

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Nonmember comment from Open Season

September 5, 2012 at 9:09 PM

The Father Should have declared open season.

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Facebook comment from Jaysin R Clifton

September 6, 2012 at 2:26 AM

aren't cops taught how to deal with distraught people or are they going to just shoot them now,the father was not thinking clearly,look at the situation, i guess no ones ever did something out of emotion that they later regretted,but the cops susposed to protect and serve even in dire situations,and as for the report of about to lose consciousness, cops have lied to justify shootings before and he could get off a kill shot but not back off and wait for the real cops to arrive,doesnt sound right to me

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Nonmember comment from Jeff

September 6, 2012 at 8:08 PM

Yeah, that's it. Shoot into the leg. The only problem is that you have an assailant that is nuts and trying to kill you. Cops are taught that when you pull the gun it is not to wound or intimidate. You use the gun to kill...or at the very least stop the attacker. The cop was in the right on this, as badly as you would like to make it otherwise.

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Facebook comment from Brian Smith

September 7, 2012 at 5:15 PM

devil TRIGGER HAPPY IDIOT! I HOPE HE CATCHES A BULLET!

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Facebook comment from Abdullah Sharif

September 8, 2012 at 10:13 AM

The father was totally wrong. We have to keep our heads for the sake of our children in all situations. That father attacked the police officer out of his own selfish desire and anger with out the benefit of intelligence or regard for his injured daughter. Now she has no father. Very sad. A reminder of why we should always hold our children's hand when we are anywhere regardless of how old they think they are.

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