Judge apologizes for telling police officer to shoot man who caused disturbance
A Pennsylvania judge apologized Wednesday after a video emerged of him telling a police officer to shoot a man if he caused another disturbance in his office, CBS station KDKA-TV reports. Magisterial District Judge Thomas Caulfield said that he didn't intend for the statement to be taken seriously.
Sources told KDKA that the man they were talking about had refused to leave Caulfield's office in Forest Hills, outside Pittsburgh. After the man did leave, the officer asked the judge in the video "how you want to proceed in this event in the future."
"I want you to shoot him," Caulfield told the officer. The officer's body camera was recording the conversation. Caulfield again said "shoot him" following another comment by the officer.
The man had appeared in Caulfield's court in the past and was well-known to police, KDKA reports. The man obtained the bodycam video through the county prosecutor's' office.
"I apologize for making the statements in the video," Caulfield said in his statement. "I would like to acknowledge that the statements I made in the video were inappropriate. It was certainly not my intention for these statements to be taken seriously and I deeply regret any harm that this has caused."
