Chances are that it would have been a great story, a winning story, when Rocky Ford police officer James Ashby explained why he had no choice but to kill Jack Jacquez.

Jacquez was skateboarding on a street when the officer approached him. Ashby said Jacquez cursed at him and walked erratically before heading toward the yard of what turned out to be his house.

Ashby told authorities he suspected Jacquez was trying to burglarize the home. He also said he thought Jacquez was getting ready to strike him with a baseball bat.

What else could Ashby do but shoot Jacquez as he was about to strike the officer with a baseball bat?  Of course, it wasn’t exactly a perfect story, because Ashby had a small inconvenience to address, a ride-along passenger, Kyle Moore.

The ride-along witness, Kyle Moore, said Jacquez said something about going home when Ashby stopped him. Jacquez did not use an expletive, Moore said, and he walked straight toward the home after talking with the officer.

But Moore couldn’t see when the fireworks flew. He did, however, hear it.

Moore didn’t witness the shooting but said he heard Ashby yelling at Jacquez to show his hands and to drop a bat.

If Jacquez wasn’t threatening Ashby with a bat, why would the cop yell at him to drop the bat?  So what if Moore says he didn’t hear Jacquez curse at Ashby?  Maybe he missed it. Maybe Ashby was mistaken.  Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that Jacquez was about to attack a cop with a bat.  Neither cops nor judges tend to find such conduct acceptable. Not even when the guy is in what turns out to be his own home.

Ashby told authorities he was standing near an entrance to Jacquez’s house when he shot Jacquez, whom he said was inside the house holding a bat that he grabbed after entering.

The officer said he feared Jacquez was “loading up” to strike him in the head with the bat.

A righteous shoot, had it ended there. But Ashby made one huge mistake:

However, the autopsy showed Jacquez was fully facing away from Ashby when he was shot, and his body couldn’t have been turned in a way to get ready to strike the officer, according to the affidavit.

Some would claim it absurdly cynical to believe that something like this could happen, no less that police would have their wits sufficiently about them to do something as facile as scream “stop resisting” as they beat a person, shoot a person, who isn’t resisting at all.  That would be malevolent, Machiavellian even, and what cop could be so evil as to obfuscate his abuse by crying “drop the bat” to a guy whose back was turned to him just to cover up the fact that he was about to murder him?

Police Officer James Ashby, for one.

Ashby was arrested after an investigation by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and was fired as a cop upon his arrest.  What becomes of this prosecution remains to be seen, in light of how recent police killings have panned out, and even if he should be convicted of murder, there remains his years of good service in his favor.

But at least his “drop the bat” cries didn’t suffice to conceal his murder of Jack Jacquez.  Then again, but for the fact that he shot Jacquez in the back, chances are awfully good that he would have gotten a medal instead.

H/T Mike Paar