Why did Texas police shoot paraplegic folk singer, Andrew Reid?

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Dear Tiffany Thanks for the info youre so kool Girl I love music and Poetry Big time Right now I am deeply wondering Do you think ? Maybe something was so heavy on his mind He could have possibly suffered from Schizophrenia hidden for a long time ? Years ago in class I wrote a thesis about this medical mental phenomena ; Some of the most monumental favorite songwriters / musicians suffered from mental ailments . This provoked them to suicide or self destructive lifestyles that ended their lives too early . I Send His Family My Deepest Condolences Why did he grab the gun ?

This is beyond irritating to read all the crap about Andrew out there. He is not a Schizophrenic. He's not crasy. He is a friend of mine and many. NO ONE KNOWS what really happend and to speculate that Andrew was messed up and not the cop who shot him - is plain ignorant. Funny how so many people are making assumptions that Andrew must have been some sort of mental case. Of course I read nothing about the cops potentially screwing up. Because of course, America law enforcement never screw up. And the media never covers for them. Maybe, just maybe, the cop that shot him was Schizophrenic....maybe the cop that shot him had a rough day. Maybe they got the story all wrong... I urge people to not believe everything they read. Rest in Peace - Andrew (we got your back)

This is beyond irritating to read all the crap about Andrew out there. He is not a Schizophrenic. He's not crasy. He is a friend of mine and many. NO ONE KNOWS what really happend and to speculate that Andrew was messed up and not the cop who shot him - is plain ignorant. Funny how so many people are making assumptions that Andrew must have been some sort of mental case. Of course I read nothing about the cops potentially screwing up. Because of course, America law enforcement never screw up. And the media never covers for them. Maybe, just maybe, the cop that shot him was Schizophrenic....maybe the cop that shot him had a rough day. Maybe they got the story all wrong... I urge people to not believe everything they read. Rest in Peace - Andrew (we got your back)

I never met Andrew, but my wife knew him quite well in high school and was shaken to the core when she heard of his death. From everything I have come to discover about Andrew Reid, he was a remarkable, intelligent and inspiring person. As a filmmaker I have observed the news stories about what happened and find them very vague, but also with a slant that paints an unfair picture of Andrew as an irrational drug addict or mentally disturbed individual. On top of being unfair, there seems to be a concerted effort to avoid exposing simple details that would otherwise be illuminating. Although entirely speculative, I offer the following imagined scenario as one that could be more in keeping with what actually happened. Some of this comes from questions I have asked of those who knew him, while anything I suggest about the events in Texas are pure speculation unless previously reported in the news: I am told Andrew Reid had chronic pain related to his paraplegic condition. It was this pain that caused his initial pain killer addiction problems, which he later triumphantly overcame. He even wrote a book about his recovery, his belief in living life to the fullest and his love for God. It has been suggested that after his recovery from heavy pain killer addiction, Andrew Reid wanted to be sure he would avoid an addictions trap again. Therefore, he was legally prescribed marijuana in minor doses to help him cope with pain in a moderate, controlled and far less addictive manner. This fact becomes relevant to later news spin. One day Andrew got in his vehicle in California, which he would have been able to drive independently, with the help of a hand operated brake and accelerator system. He had made commitments to friends in Texas that he would be there at a certain time, possibly he was being depended upon to arrive at a particular time for something related to his music career. The industry of music has its share of make or break moments that are based on just showing up to make the right gig in time. Alternately, he may have been urgently needed by a friend due to his background as an addictions counselor, making his destination of vital importance to him. As he entered Fort Stockton, Texas, he may have found himself in tight rush hour traffic. To top it off, an earlier fender bender car accident, had slowed traffic to a halt. As time ticked on Andrew may have felt somewhat frustrated and stressed at the loss of time and his worries that he'd let down his Texas friends if he showed up late for a crucial, possibly career defining, meeting. As Andrew neared the source of the traffic congestion, he may have noted that fire trucks and police vehicles seemed to be holding up traffic unnecessarily, as there was obviously enough space for cars to get through if they really wanted to let them. Even when it looked like traffic might be starting to move again, officers seemed to be halting traffic for yet more of their cars to move back and forth. At some point Andrew saw another opening for traffic to flow and still police wouldn't usher traffic through. Out of a combination of frustration and assuming that cops might be too busy to prioritize traffic flow, Andrew turned onto a clear shoulder of the road, and drove his car past the accident scene, startling a fire truck operator who was nearby. (The fire truck operator later claims that he felt he was nearly hit by the car). Andrew speeds up, accelerating away from the blocked area, not realizing the police are angry that he hasn't waited passively for them to give him official permission to proceed. One of the officers jumps in a police cruiser and starts to head after him, but Andrew, traveling at highway speeds, is far enough ahead that he is unaware of the pursuing officer. The officer in pursuit worries that he won't catch Andrew, before he loses him at an exit. He radios in for support by with a hyperbolic statement about chasing a fleeing vehicle. Rather than attempting to wave Andrew down, other officers lay down road spikes further up the road. Andrew hits then and stops. Of course, he feels the actions are excessive and gets irritated with the officers for wrecking his car tires and treating him like a criminal. Because he is irritated and verbally challenging them, the ego tripping cops handcuff and arrest him. Thrown in jail for the night, Andrew feels harassed by the Stockton cops, after they find his medicinal use marijuana coupled with their angst at his rushing past their accident site. Andrew is both shocked at their treatment of him and intensely disappointed that the police have taken his mode of transportation, his drivers license and destroyed his chances of getting to whatever urgent appointment he had intended to get to. After a night in jail, police refuse to restore his drivers license to him and decide to charge him, while insisting that his only option will be to have family fly down from New Brunswick, Canada, to retrieve him. The police take him to a local motel and drop him off for his family to retrieve him. The biggest mystery is found in what happens next. Andrew became desperately upset. It may be that his chronic pain was becoming unbearable, since officers had confiscated his only source of pain prescribed releaf and left him there with no help. To top it off Andrew may have found out that the cost of missing his destination appointment came with a heavy price to his friends or to himself. Feeling he had no other option, Andrew began moving about the parking lot of the Motel tapping on doors for Asprine, Advil or any kind of pain medication that might pull him through till family arrived. A slightly paranoid motel guest calls 911 and states that a man in a wheel chair is causing a disturbance. The police, with a chip on their shoulder already over Andrew, head to deal with the issue. Unfortunately they send a rookie male cop and a trigger happy female officer. The two officers arrive to see Andrew in the parking lot, calling out to people at the motel, "Come on! I just need freaking Asprine! Someone give me a hand!" When the police show up they get verbally aggressive right away, telling Andrew he is on thin ice. Andrew may have been irritated at their demeanor, since they are partially the cause of his woes. However, he says he needs something for his back pain and things calm down for a minute. When the officers tell Andrew they can't help him and he'll just have to deal with it till family arrives, Andrew barks at one of them, "You idiots take away everything and tell me its my problem?!" The cops get irritated with Andrew's confrontational and disgusted tone and figure they'll put him in his place. They tel him they are going to arrest him for disturbing the peaced, to which Andrew gets more irritated as the police seem to be getting more unreasonable than ever. Andrew tells the cops to get lost. The female officer pulls out handcuffs and reaches for his wrist and Andrew draws back, saying they can't arrest him for being in pain and needing help. The rookie cop pulls out his weapon and tells him to cool it, as Andrew keeps pushing the female cops hands and handcuffs away. Andrew is starting to think this whole thing is an overblown intimidation show. Just then the rookie cop sticks a hand in to try and assist in forcing Andrew into handcuffs, but is not aware that he has his gun casually pointed in Andrews direction. Andrew sticks his hand on the cops gun loaded hand and shoves it away, causing it to fire off one stray shot. The rookie releases his weapon, leaving Andrew holding it. Andrew, shocked at the situation himself, holds out the gun to the cop and says, "You could have killed some one. Here... Take this and put it away." However, the cop freezes and doesn't take the weapon. As Andrew gestures to the other cop saying "Here you take it then", the female officer fires her weapon twice at Andrew. The rookie looks at the female cops, "What the hell did you just do?", he asks her. "I thought he fired your weapon at you" she answers. "No. the bullet was fired accidentally", he says. This was when they had to come up with a way to spin it all. The two cops, realizing they have over reacted to the situation, concoct a story that absolves them of guilt. After questioning the local motel attendant (he was in a televised news clip), they discover that he did not witness the shooting, only the verbal scuffle and he heard the shots fired. The official story to the press eliminated the word "marijuana", claiming only that Andrew had narcotics in his system. They knew nobody would buy the story that a man in a wheel chair was hard core nut job because he had some prescribed weed for chronic pain. They also left out the reason for the disturbance at the motel, since Andrew's rational reason for being upset would only make their story seem shaky. Better to make him seem a raving lunatic. Lastly, it must have been decided to make the entire report as vague as possible, so nobody would grasp how overblown the cops had made the situation. In retrospect they likely realized that, without the ego trips, they could have given him a moving violation ticket, returned his prescription pain releaver and treated him like a rational human being that needed some understanding. That's it. That's the scenario I have conjured in my head through a combination of actual news reports, friends testimony of what a decent guy Andrew was and my own speculations on how a very nice, rational guy winds up shot by inept and corrupt cops. Unless more info comes out on this, I say my story makes a lot more sense than what the press has been saying. I hope someone can get to the real bottom of this. One thing I can say for certain is that Andrew will be missed immensely by those who love him and by those he inspired, both with his words and actions.

When a person, SCI or not takes a dive in to the deep end of the pool of dispair, they become unpredictable. I feel for Andrew and the cop who shot him. It sounds like Andrew was seeking this situation. I talk to people like Andrew every day. And I get calls from the cops sent out to deal with those people. The situations are always dangerous and when all goes wrong there is little left but saddness. I have been in the saddle for what will far too soon be 30 years. I have lost far too many friends to self distruction. It is always dizzying, even when the story is distant like Andrew's.We are left only with the understanding of how important it is to keep ourselves whole and support each other as best we can. Stay strong....

i was his neighbor in California and as far as i can tell, he was slaughtered. i was the last person to say goodbye to him when he left for Austin, if you have any questions i would love to talk about Reider(my nickname for Andrew).

i was his neighbor in California and as far as i can tell, he was slaughtered. i was the last person to say goodbye to him when he left for Austin, if you have any questions i would love to talk about Reider(my nickname for Andrew).

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