HOUSTON – When it comes to shootings, there are two things you need to know in the court system, crossfire and friendly fire.
KPRC 2 Legal Analyst Brian Wice tells us what they mean to cut through the legalese in this ‘Anatomy of a Trial.’
WHAT IS CROSSFIRE?
“Crossfire is just a term of art. That means once the shooting starts, it’s going to be difficult early on to determine where it’s coming from,” says Wice. “It’s going to be difficult in the first instance to figure out whether or not those shots are coming from a suspected drug dealer, a suspected fugitive, a suspected felon, or whether it’s coming from law enforcement.”
WHAT IS FRIENDLY FIRE?
“It’s a military term that refers to casualties, either death or injury. That’s a result not of enemy fire, but a fire accidentally from your own force directed against your own people. And it applies with equal force to law enforcement,” he says. “We’ve seen so many tragic situations where law enforcement officers are killed or injured not by the bad guys, but by the good guys, by crossfire is a result of the kind of tension, a pressure-packed scenario we see any time a high-risk search warrant is executed.”