New Mexico v. Billy Anders...The Real Story

Or at least "realer" then Massad Ayoob portrayed it.

After receiving an email alerting me to a recent story by Massad Ayoob, I did some checking to see what unbiased reports were saying. New Mexico Police Sgt. Billy Anders pled guilty to shooting a handcuffed prisoner. According to Ayoob, Anders handcuffed the deceased after he fired the fatal bullet, but the state contended the opposite. That Sgt. Anders fired a round into a prone and cuffed prisoner. Ayoob believed Anders, and testified at his sentencing. Here's what Anders himself had to say:

"'I remember he was moving and I considered him a threat," he said in a rambling interview. "I don't remember shooting him when he was handcuffed."'

Still, said Sergeant Anders, who was sentenced on March 3, his 63rd birthday: "I'm a reasonable person; I can't argue with the videotape. If I crossed the line, I have to take responsibility."'

Yes, the videotape. Shot from the squad car. Showing Sgt. Anders spending some time bending over Earl Flippen after first shooting him, then returning after finding his partner dead and shooting him again. Backup arrived to find Flippen cuffed from behind and dead. The videotape from the squad car missing. Anders later told them he had removed it then stowed the tape in the trunk of his car to "preserve" the evidence.

In this months issue of American Handgunner, Massad Ayoob contends that Sgt. Anders shot Flippen, returned after determining that his partner had been killed in the rear of the house, saw Flippen prone and reaching for "something metallic", then shot him. And handcuffed him. No mention is made of Anders confused state of mind or being unable to remember if he shot a handcuffed man. No mention is made of his agreeing that the tape showed what it showed. On the contrary. Ayoob defends the shooting as a good one, says the tape was too blurry, and was angered that the justice system took down a good cop.

This is not to say that scum of the earth Earl Flippen didn't deserve what he got. It is to say that Massad Ayoob will go to the farthest extreme possible to feature a story where an officer of the law is unjustly accused of a crime with a gun. Readers in the tens of thousands will see this and believe Ayoob. But something smelled fishy, the kind of fishy one often gets from the average, poorly written Massad Ayoob tale of woe. Back in March, the story made national headlines, averring that a soon to be retired cop executed a white supremist who had just shot and killed his partner. Ayoob would have you believe this was a media lie. I wanted to believe it too. But, never believe anything in a gun rag

Sgt. Anders himself agreed that he deserved punishment. The events happened far different than American Handgunner said they did. For more click here.