Sal Culosi is dead because he bet on a football game — but it wasn’t a bookie or a loan shark who killed him. His local government killed him, ostensibly to protect him from his gambling habit.

Several months earlier at a local bar, Fairfax County, Virginia, detective David Baucum overheard the thirty-eight-year-old optometrist and some friends wagering on a college football game. “To Sal, betting a few bills on the Redskins was a stress reliever, done among friends,” a friend of Culosi’s told me shortly after his death. “None of us single, successful professionals ever thought that betting fifty bucks or so on the Virginia–Virginia Tech football game was a crime worthy of investigation.” Baucum apparently did. After overhearing the men wagering, Baucum befriended Culosi as a cover to begin investigating him. During the next several months, he talked Culosi into raising the stakes of what Culosi thought were just more fun wagers between friends to make watching sports more interesting. Eventually Culosi and Baucum bet more than $2,000 in a single day. Under Virginia law, that was enough for police to charge Culosi with running a gambling operation. And that’s when they brought in the SWAT team.

On the night of January 24, 2006, Baucum called Culosi and arranged a time to drop by to collect his winnings. When Culosi, barefoot and clad in a T-shirt and jeans, stepped out of his house to meet the man he thought was a friend, the SWAT team began to move in. Seconds later, Det. Deval Bullock, who had been on duty since 4:00 AM and hadn’t slept in seventeen hours, fired a bullet that pierced Culosi’s heart.

Sal Culosi’s last words were to Baucum, the cop he thought was a friend: “Dude, what are you doing?”

In March 2006, just two months after its ridiculous gambling investigation resulted in the death of an unarmed man, the Fairfax County Police Department issued a press release warning residents not to participate in office betting pools tied to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The title: “Illegal Gambling Not Worth the Risk.” Given the proximity to Culosi’s death, residents could be forgiven for thinking the police department believed wagering on sports was a crime punishable by execution.

In January 2011, the Culosi family accepted a $2 million settlement offer from Fairfax County. That same year, Virginia’s government spent $20 million promoting the state lottery.


http://www.salon.com/2013/07/07/%E2%80%9Cwhy_did_you_shoot_me_i_was_reading_a_book_the_new_warrior_cop_is_out_of_control/

The state should put both cops to death, Baucum for stupidity and wasting the taxpayers' money, and Bullock for incompetence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112401308.html

According to this article, the shooter was going to be suspended without pay for 3 weeks as punishment for killing a man, and the Fairfax police actually considered that to be a harsh punishment. They said an accidental shooting usually gets less punishment than that. That's amazing, I wonder if there are any other industries where you can negligently kill people on the job, not lose your job and only get a short suspension.

Anyone who knows anything about gun safety knows that one of the basic rules is to keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot. Bullock claimed he bumped into his car door and that caused him to shoot. That could only happen if he had his finger on the trigger, which is negligent. He should have been prosecuted for manslaughter.

The shooter should have been banned from law enforcement forever, as well as whoever decided to send a SWAT team to arrest an unarmed optometrist with no criminal record.

Cops can pretty much kill with impunity and usually the worst that can happen is the victim's family can win a civil lawsuit that is paid off by the taxpayers rather than any of the police involved.

Hoosier Daddy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The state should put both cops to death, Baucum
> for stupidity and wasting the taxpayers' money,
> and Bullock for incompetence.

But yet those crackhouses are still over there in Fairfax county, but it was more important to corrupt someone who had a gambling problem. Nice work.

The first step is to create some type of Citizen Oversight, so that the Fairfax County Police is not "self-policing" (i.e., white-washing). Right now, in Fairfax County, if a cop shoots an innocent Fairfax resident, he's covered by the Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney (look at the record, it's horrible), and by Internal Affairs (who do everything they can to exonerate a cop).

The ridiculous examples over the last 30 years have cost several innocent people their lives, have cost Fairfax County residents a lot of money, and have lost the respect of at least this lifelong Fairfax resident.

Bofunk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The first step is to create some type of Citizen
> Oversight, so that the Fairfax County Police is
> not "self-policing" (i.e., white-washing). Right
> now, in Fairfax County, if a cop shoots an
> innocent Fairfax resident, he's covered by the
> Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney (look at the
> record, it's horrible), and by Internal Affairs
> (who do everything they can to exonerate a cop).
>
> The ridiculous examples over the last 30 years
> have cost several innocent people their lives,
> have cost Fairfax County residents a lot of money,
> and have lost the respect of at least this
> lifelong Fairfax resident.

I agree with you completely. Now, I appreciate everything law enforcement does for society, but just like every other government entity, there should be some accountability. Civilian oversight is a very effective way of doing exactly so, and it would most certainly be good to implement that in our county.

So now we know Fairfax pays 2 million for a murder. They just raise taxes and cut services when this happens. This is how they took care of Amanda Perry's victim as well.

Does anyone know where Amanda Perry (former FCPD) ended up? Wrongful death, faking her timesheets, even Cutco and Vector Marketing might not hire her.

Sad story for Sal and his family.

Way to really crack down on Organized Crime FFX, that there is an example of tax dollars well spent.

Be careful pgens, posting a pic like that will get the brown shirts all riled up...

Fairfax County press release...“Illegal Gambling Not Worth the Risk.”


Yeah, that's worth gunning down someone over.


How about Fairfax County spending some money teaching these "SWAT" team losers how to actually control their weapons....NO excuse for this

I blame whoever ordered SWAT out for some guy who bets on football games.

I clicked on this thinking there was something new to read here. I am surprised nobody has called PETA yet on the dead horse you guys keep beating.

Mr GFR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I clicked on this thinking there was something new
> to read here. I am surprised nobody has called
> PETA yet on the dead horse you guys keep beating.

idontlikebeingrightaboutshitlikethisbutiam



Edited 21 time(s). Last edit at 5/31/1967 05:57AM by WingNut.

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Last edit at 6/29/2013 11:18PM Last edit at 3/19/2011 01:02PM Last edit at 3/26/2012 09:07PM

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The kid in the middle was shot in the IHOP fiasco, wrong police department, asshole. PS> just for shits/giggles I'm going to find out who's intellectual property you stole, the "crying bald eagle" image and let them know who you are. Enjoy the legal fees, dickless.

This is tragic but this article is somewhat biased because it doesn't reveal the true nature of case. The bets were $28,000 over the three month investigation.

Obviously the cop didn't intend to kill the dude. RIP

Here's the report: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/news-releases/special-reports/pdf/community-report-salvatore-culosi.pdf