This weekend, Maryland police found themselves facing a sh** storm of criticism after high-risk warrant turned into a deadly shooting.
Police were serving a warrant on Duncan Socrates Lemp, 21, at 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning when police claimed he “confronted” the officers.
In response, the officers opened fire, killing Lemp and wounding his girlfriend.
Eye Witness Accounts
While police have stated there was a threat, witnesses are alleging Lemp was asleep and posed no threat to the officers.
An attorney for the Lemp family, Rene Sandler, stated the witness accounts are “completely contrary” to what the police have stated.
She further stated the police had “absolutely no justification” for shooting the 21-year-old, who they allege was asleep at the time.
Sandler added, “The facts as I understand them from eyewitnesses are incredibly concerning.”
Why the Raid?
Lemp is a self-described III percenter, a conservative, pro-Second Amendment militia group that has vowed to, if necessary, take up arms against the government for overreach.
Police have stated Lemp was boasting of owning firearms, even though he was, for an unknown reason, prohibited from owning them.
After reports of Lemp having guns, as well as some alleged social media posts showing his mini-arsenal, they issued the warrant.
A release from local police stated, “Detectives were following up on a complaint from the public that Lemp, though prohibited, was in possession of firearms.”
The shooting is currently under investigation and the officer responsible has been put on administrative leave.
We would expect bodycam footage to come into play at some point, as well as more information as to why Lemp was prohibited from owning any firearms.
We are not going to jump to any conclusions at this point but if this shooting ends up being unjustified, expect a significant response from pro-Second Amendment groups to demand immediate justice against this police officer.
I hope the family sues the police department for wrongful death. They never did anything to warn other family members before acting all a fool by shooting someone who is sleeping? This goes beyond stupid, and the chief of police and those involved needs to be in prison for this heinous act.
Ironically, it’s been just about half a century since Chicago police likewise broke into an apartment and shot Fred Hampton, sleeping, in bed. Hampton too advocated citizens arming themselves against a corrupt and overreaching government. How nice to know that the police are equal-opportunity killers: Black or White, claim your rights, You’ll wind up dead, asleep in bed. Yup.
Second amendment groups will demand justice? How the hell can there be justice, the victim is dead and his girlfriend is injured? The policeman is not the one who should be accountable, the ass holes who wrote a stupid law making it possible to take one’s arms without due process are the ones responsible. These red flag laws are popping up all over the country and as they have grown in number and locations, the second amendment people have said in every case that people were going to die as a result of these ill conceived laws. Now, some are starting to die-but many more will before it’s over. When the cops are told they have to take someone’s guns, they usually come in the middle of the night, heavily armed and they make a no knock entrance. If you are a homeowner and someone breaks into your house at midnight you will attempt to defend yourself and your home with your gun. Now we have two armed foes in a fight to the death-and, the homeowner will lose almost every time because the odds are stacked against him. Get your city or county established as a second amendment sanctuary area as soon as possible to save your own life. The Gun Owners of America (GOA) has an outline for getting this done and a thousand counties have already done it.
Gun Grabbers will go to all extremes to take our guns ! They will get warrants issued for no reason at all and turn loose their police dogs to kill at will ! The Grabbers are nothing but cowards … let them come after our guns themselves ! This no knock crap is total BULL SHIT ! I hope the family sues the living hell out of the entire establishment !
THIS is precisely why red flag laws DO NOT WORK!!! we are going to see a lot more of this folks, hang onto your guns
He was executed as a thought criminal.
Why was the Girlfriend shot? Police failed to see who was in the House before entering without Notice or identification? Laws like these need to be overturned by the Voter and recall the Politicians who put them in place.
AMEN!!
This is the problem with the red flag stuff. You have totally sinister SOBs setting up people for a gun confiscation with no real corroboration of their information (which should be a red flag for the authorities) so false charges are at play against innocent citizens. Then a warrant gets issued which more than likely comes in the dead of night with a no knock warrant. Any one being shattered from a sleep by doors crashing in and gun ready cops ready to shoot is going to end up bad. Just the commotion of a sleeping person being awakened like this is going to excite the officers and get someone hurt. The persons responsible for this going wrong are the insane politicians that created the situation and in most cases is a damn stupid liberal. SCOTUS should outlaw the red flag laws!
Red Flag laws need to go and the right to bear arms should be the only law try to take mine and see who ends up dead i also have a carry license one in state that requries and one that has open carry
Nothing will happen to this $h!tbag cop!! He was definitely threatened by a SLEEPING MAN IN HIS OWN BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yup, the $h!tbag cop did nothing wrong!!!!!!
Yep to all above comments BUT if Lamp was prohibited from owning firearms -why? And he was stupid for advertising that he did
Bill Smith – – – My exact thought. He should have been fighting the prohibition of owning firearms. His membership in a group dedicated to armed rebellion and bragging about having guns for that purpose created the vision of a “wild man” ready to shoot enforcement officials. Police officers were thus primed to “shoot first and ask questions later”. There have been a number of deadly instances BEFORE so-called Red Laws were made.
The PROBLEM with so-called red laws is this. Anyone – angry neighbor, someone who owes you money or return of property, a disgruntled ex-spouse, ANYONE who wants to punish you for any reason – can file a claim against you as a gun owning threat and the police or government enforcers can assault your home or business with ready-to-shoot-to-kill attitude.