Scott Mechkowski
Role at the time: Retired deputy field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York City, in a Daily Wire opinion column
Statement summary
In a Daily Wire column, Scott Mechkowski, a retired ICE deputy field office director in New York, wrote that a vehicle driven at an officer is a deadly weapon and that the case turns on whether the man was using his car as a weapon, which he said the footage will show. He criticized officials who condemned the shooting before any video was public.
“A vehicle driven at an officer is a deadly weapon, and I taught officers to treat it that way. ... DHS hasn’t yet said what that officer saw in that moment. That question decides this case: was the man behind the wheel using his car as a weapon against an officer? The footage will answer it.”
Why we used this label
The reference point is whether the ICE officer was justified in shooting the man in the car. Mechkowski says "That question decides this case" and frames it as whether the driver was "using his car as a weapon against an officer", which makes his view of the shooting depend on footage not yet released, so we labeled it Mixed or conditional. The closest competing label is Defended or excused, since he argues a car driven at an officer is a deadly weapon and faults officials who condemned the shooting early; it loses because he does not say the condition was met.