When former UFC heavyweight Cain Velazquez went behind bars after shooting at a man accused of molesting his four-year-old daughter, plenty of voices in the MMA community chorused their support. One man who would know more about the particulars of cases like this than most other UFC personalities is current heavyweight Chris Daukaus, who was once a law enforcement officer in Philadelphia.
Daukaus revealed his unique perspective on the matter, as both a father and former officer of the law, in an interview with Sherdog. “Yeah, so as a father and as a fighter, I’m OK with what he did.
Ex Cop Daukaus Weighs in on Velasquez Case
Yes, it sucks that he shot the wrong person. I understand where he’s coming from. I understand the emotions that he must have felt and I couldn’t imagine what was going through his head, and I couldn’t imagine being in that situation.” However, as a law enforcement officer, he could see the result coming.
“As a former law enforcement officer, as a former police officer, dealing with the circumstances of the case and the facts of the case, I knew he was gonna be locked up.
And he’s going to be charged, and it’s just [about] what he gets charged with during the trial. It’s a really bad situation, I think. But we’ll see how it plays out as far as the timeline goes.”
Cain Velasquez remains behind bars, denied bail, while Henry Goularte, alleged child molester, walks free. Chris Daukaus pointed out that there are mitigating factors that may determine how much punishment Velasquez ends up receiving. More to the point, says the UFC heavyweight, Velasquez’s actions reveal a widespread loss of faith in the judicial system.
“So if it was a quote-unquote ‘crime of passion’ with his emotions and if he just reacted, that plays a factor as opposed to him planning a revenge factor against this person. That also plays a factor in it.
But as a father and as a father of a young son and a soon-to-be daughter, I can respect what he did; I understand what he did. But as a former law enforcement officer, like I said, he broke the law; he needs to be locked up.
But I guess that goes to show the type of faith or lack of faith that an individual has in the criminal justice system here in America, which you can tell from not only this story but other stories, it seems to be broken at this point in time.
I really wish that it was fixed. But there seems to be something really wrong if the guy who did that to Cain Velasquez is now free to go out in society and back to his normal life after what he’s done, allegedly, to someone or other people.” Do you agree with Daukaus’ assessment? Let us know in the comments.
