You and I know that there are times you draw your gun and times you don’t. That’s true of anyone who carries a gun, either private citizen, military, or police officer. We all know this and it’s important we all understand the rules of when we can draw that firearm.

Unfortunately, a police officer in Michigan is facing charges for allegedly drawing when he shouldn’t have.

A DeWitt police officer who was fired and then reinstated following an off-duty incident involving a newspaper delivery driver has been criminally charged in connection with that incident.

Chad Vorce was arraigned Thursday in Clinton County District Court on one count each of misconduct in office, felonious assault and felony firearm possession, court records show.

The state Attorney General’s Office said Vorce, who was off duty, broke the law when he twice pulled a gun on a 19-year-old newspaper delivery driver he believed was driving erratically in January 2021.

“Our assessment of this incident showed dangerous behavior exhibited by Mr. Vorce,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a news release. “Those who swear to protect and serve must do so responsibly.”

…

The incident involving the delivery driver happened on the morning of Jan. 14, 2021.

Vorce called 911 to report seeing a “suspicious” Black man parked near his DeWitt Township home. He spoke with the driver, then followed him to a gas station, where he approached the driver with his gun out, according to police reports.

Nessel’s office said he drew his weapon twice – once on Airport Road and a second time in the gas station parking lot. DeWitt police and Michigan State Police eventually arrived at the gas station, she said.

Vorce was fired from his department for operating outside of his jurisdiction, but an arbitrator called for him to be reinstated. That never happened because of a certification issue.

Now, was Vorce right to have his gun drawn?

On one hand, it should be understood that a car can and does constitute a potentially deadly weapon. As such, officers treating a driver like he’s armed makes sense in certain instances.

This, however, doesn’t sound like one.

I’m not going to speculate on why the officer found a newspaper delivery driver suspicious but will note that he claims the guy was driving erratically. Well, considering how newspaper delivery drivers kind of have to drive here–slowly on the wrong side of the road–in order to make their deliveries, I suppose I could see why he’d say that if Vorce didn’t recognize what was happening.

But I still don’t see any information on why he felt he needed to draw his weapon.

The truth is, at the end of the day, Vorce is facing charges for his actions and we all need to learn from them.

I’ve heard plenty of people talk of how they’re more than willing to draw a firearm at the slightest provocation. They’re not the majority of the people I’ve spoken with, mind you, but it only takes a couple to screw things up for the rest of us.

To those folks, I present this story to you in hopes that you’ll learn that if a cop can’t get away with pulling a gun on so little provocation, neither can you.