by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project:

For trying to drive out of a parking lot, an otherwise entirely innocent man was nearly shot by a trigger happy cop who held him at gunpoint.

Helena, AR — A disturbing video was shared with the Free Thought Project this week showing what can happen when trigger happy cops pull their guns out for no reason. Edrick Truitt is lucky to be alive after being held at gunpoint by a Helena-West Helena Police officer for doing nothing but trying to drive out of a gas station parking lot.

Truitt explained to WREG that he was simply parked just after 3 a.m. at a Double Quick store to meet up with his family before driving back home to Jonesboro. However, the officer accused Truitt of loitering and all hell broke loose.

“As we were leaving out, a car jumped in front of me, so I hit my brakes to let them go by,” Truitt said.

“By that time, Truitt said he was blocked in and couldn’t move, so he became the center of attention, and things just escalated from there,” WREG reports.

The cop jumped out of his car with his gun drawn and Truitt made the decision to begin filming.

“I started rolling because he jumped out with his gun,” Truitt said.

Not wanting to be killed, Truitt held his hands in clear view so the officer would not shoot.

The officer kept demanding that Truitt reach and turn off the car, but as the video shows, this cop had his finger next to the trigger and any wrong move may have gotten Truitt killed. So, he simply kept his hands up and asked the officer to turn off the car.

“Played it safe,” Truitt said. “He was like, ‘That’s a failure to comply,’ but if I would have complied, I would have got killed.”

As WREG reports:

IN THE VIDEO, YOU CAN HEAR THE OFFICER TELL TRUITT TO TURN OFF THE CAR AND THAT HE WON’T SHOOT HIM. THE OFFICER EVEN TOLD HIM HIS BODY CAMERA WAS ON AND FILMING THE WHOLE THING.

TRUITT SAID HE DIDN’T BELIEVE THE OFFICER, SO HE DIDN’T REACH TO TURN THE CAR OFF, AND HE WANTED HIS OWN PROOF ASIDE FROM WHAT VIDEO MIGHT SURFACE LATER ON.

When the officer saw Truitt’s legally owned pistol in the back seat of his car, things got even scarier for this innocent man.

As Truitt held his hands out of the window, the officer dragged him from the car and threw him on the ground. Truitt was pulled from the vehicle with so much force that it caused him to drop his phone.

For not wanting to be shot by the cop, Truitt was then arrested and charged with loitering and disobeying a lawful order. In spite of the charges, Truitt said his actions that night saved his life and, given another chance, he would’ve done it the exact same way.

“What I did saved my life,” he said. “That’s why I’m here talking to y’all. If not, y’all would be covering a story about how I got shot.”

Below is this disturbing video showing how quickly police can escalate a situation to deadly force.

We agree. There are far too many instances of people complying with officers’ orders and getting shot and killed int he process. Philando Castile is one of those people. Castile was shot and killed for doing everything he was supposed to do during a traffic stop because a frightened trigger happy cop couldn’t help but start shooting.

Read More @ TheFreeThoughtProject.com