Dallas officer ignores plea for help during kidnapping

A Dallas police officer has been fired after he drove away from a woman who tried to flag him down after her children had been kidnapped at gunpoint, according to the Dallas News.

Senior Cpl. Les Richardson, a 28-year department veteran, was fired on Wednesday. Richardson, 61, was responding to burglary call on Aug. 25 when dispatchers announced shots had been fired and a suspect rammed a woman’s car in the area where Richardson was driving, police said.

In September, Miesha Kilson was being chased down by a crazed man with a gun, Steven Douglas. During the chase Kilson hit a curb which left her vehicle disabled. Douglas then came over to Kilson’s vehicle and proceeded to kidnap her children at gun point. “He reached into the windows, pulls it out,” said Kilson. “And as the window exploded in my face, I actually thought he shot it; I didn’t know at the time. But I did see his hands up and he pulled [the window] out. And I looked over, and as I looked up out that passenger window, I swear I saw an angel ‘cause I saw a police car right at my car.” In that police cruiser was Cpl Les Richardson; Kilson’s angel quickly vanished.

Douglas was eventually caught and killed by other Dallas police officers but not before kidnapping two children. Disciplinary hearings were held last month in which Dallas police commanders recommended that Officer Les Richardson be terminated by Chief David Brown. Thankfully Chief Brown made the right choice to fire him. The four allegations against Richardson were: dereliction of duty, improper comments, failure to immediately clear upon the completion of a call and use of tobacco products in a city vehicle.