On the matter of the police shooting which took the life of Anthony Wayne Furr, we are still getting more spin than facts from CMPD. A very simple fact we’ve yet to hear: Where was Officer Steve Branan when the shooting happened?
Branan’s partner, Officer Anthony Payne, fired three times, killing Furr. That much we know. Where was Branan? Was he also in the cell tower building? Did he see or hear Payne’s repeated commands to Furr to put down the .38 snub-nose revolver Payne says Furr pointed at the officer?
Even Payne’s exact location is confused. One account has him “looking through the doorway” and another has him entering the building.
Meanwhile, steps away from that door, a third officer, Officer Adam Benson, was searching Furr’s truck. That still leaves Branan unaccounted for, perhaps he was looking for another exit to the building.
CMPD would go a long way toward clearing up confusion about this incident were the department to release some sort of recreation of where the officers were when the shooting happened.
There is another matter which needs full investigation, however. Anyone who heard Keith Larson’s show on WBT Friday morning had to be struck by the claim of man identifying himself as a friend of Furr who claimed that just hours before his death, Furr had shown him a new angled, power screwdriver he had just purchased. Was any such screwdriver found in Furr’s possession at the time of the shooting?
It is not a very fanciful stretch to imagine that the reason Furr did not obey the officer’s commands to drop a gun is that he was not holding a gun, he was holding a power screwdriver.
Only facts can counter such speculation. Spin never will.
