r/interestingasfuck • u/SilkenSeraph • 1d ago

/r/all Ryan Waller, a 22-year-old man who, despite having a bullet in his eye, endured 4 hours of interrogation by cops who thought he was lying—only to receive medical help too late.

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

49.6k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

5.4k

u/SilkenSeraph 1d ago edited 1d ago

CORRECTION! Ryan was 18 years old at the time of the interrogation. He died a decade later, at the age of 27. During the 10 years after the interrogation, he endured several seizures and was partially blind before suffering from his final seizure and passing away.

Edit: He was NOT left for 3 days before being found. That is false. For those asking about the timeline, here’s what I found based on multiple sources:

December 23, 2006 – Ryan Waller and his girlfriend, Heather Quan, were attacked in their home during a break-in. Heather was fatally shot, and Ryan was shot in the head but survived.

Later that night – Ryan's parents became worried when he didn’t show up for Christmas dinner. They went to his house and, after getting no response, called the police.

Police arrive – Officers enter the home, find Heather deceased, and Ryan alive but severely injured. Despite having a gunshot wound to the eye, Ryan is detained and interrogated for approximately six hours (four hours in a police car + two hours in interrogation).

After six hours – Police finally realize the severity of his injuries, and he is taken to the hospital. However, the delay caused severe brain damage.

January 20, 2016 – Ryan Waller passes away due to complications from his injuries.

Sources:

Find a Grave – https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/228526929/ryan-thomas-waller

Reddit discussion on r/mrballen – https://www.reddit.com/r/mrballen/comments/oxseaw/ryan_waller_a_murder_investigation_gone_terribly/

Weird True Crime – https://weirdtruecrime.com/the-shocking-story-of-ryan-waller-heather-quan/

Medium Article – https://medium.com/@nikyoung/suspected-killer-turned-victim-the-tragic-death-of-ryan-waller-43ee0075ce

Unilad Article – https://www.unilad.com/news/crime/ryan-waller-shot-interrogated-police-497340-20231103

YouTube videos explaining the case:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI8G0KOOtqk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6qJUqhT96Y

1.6k

u/marrangutang 1d ago

I watched the police interrogation awhile back, he was confused and no coherent memory, or his explanations made no sense, of what happened… he should have been checked out immediately upon pickup you could see the moment that his interrogator realised that yea maybe he should be looked at… shame (and ridiculous) it took so long

579

u/tombaba 1d ago

Yeah a bullet wound in even just the eye should mean a trip to the hospital asap. People are bending over backwards to absolutely slobber on boots as usual.

129

u/werewere-kokako 1d ago

One person with a fatal gunshot wound + a second unarmed, incoherent person with an obvious head injury = call a doctor.

The interrogation video is on YT and you can see the "oh shit" moment when the interrogator leans in and sees the entry wound in the bruised eye socket. Poor kid had that bullet in his brain the whole time those cops were manhandling him as an "uncooperative" suspect. I hope they carry his death on their consciences for the rest of their lives

21

u/InternetExpertroll 1d ago

I hope they burn in hell.

11

u/Shun_yaka 1d ago

Very likely Hell only exists in this plane of reality pal

4

u/Balikye 1d ago

This IS Hell.

2

u/S-WordoftheMorning 19h ago

That would require the capacity for empathy and the ability to not view every "suspect" as a piece of shit who "doesn't deserve" civil rights or due process. Sadly, the vast majority of cops and their boot licking civilian enablers don't.

-48

u/Gas-Town 1d ago

Well, that's because your dumbass is omitting the fact that there was no obvious entry wound and it just looked like he had raccoon eyes.

He should've been taken to the hospital for a multitude of other reasons, but acting like the police knew he had a GSW is stupid and reveals you didn't read/watch shit.

44

u/shito-ditto 1d ago

Racoon eyes are one of the biggest indicators of someone potentially having a GSW to the face.....

-19

u/Orphan_Guy_Incognito 1d ago edited 1d ago

They're also an indicator that the woman you murdered got a few hits in before you killed her.

Dude absolutely should have gone to the hospital once it was clear something wasn't right (which is almost immediately when you talked to him) but if you're a cop and you find a guy sitting in his house with his dead girlfriend the most reasonable assumption is 'this guy killed her', not 'this guy was shot in the face but miraculously survived and is sitting here talking with us unable to coherently explain that he's been shot in the face'.

u/forkball The entire point was that the bullet wound was hidden by the swelling so they didn't know he'd been shot in the head.

51

u/shito-ditto 1d ago

When the guy starts speaking like a toddler and can't stay awake, has raccoon eyes and tells you repeatedly he was shot in the face, you take him to the hospital within that first hour. Idc if their first instinct was he did it. Dude obviously had brain damage level injuries, regardless of their source and they still hauled him off for questions instead.

Your excuse works for the first hour. Anything after that is them being obtuse.

-4

u/Orphan_Guy_Incognito 1d ago

Sorry, let me help you here.

Dude absolutely should have gone to the hospital once it was clear something wasn't right (which is almost immediately when you talked to him)

I've bolded the part where this was literally what I was saying.

I don't think it was wrong for the cops to arrest him and bring him in given the circumstances and the fact that his injury appeared to be a couple of black eyes. But as soon as one of them sat to interrogate him it should have been immediately obvious that something was wrong.

They 1000% fucked up and should have been sued into oblivion.

11

u/mushroom_soup79 1d ago

Its okay to say you're wrong. Hope this helps!

0

u/Orphan_Guy_Incognito 1d ago

My brother in Christ, I'm not wrong, you just fired off from the hip without reading the fucking post.

You said my 'excuse' works for the first hour. I literally said that they should have noticed almost immediately when talking to him. What do you think the word immediately means? Because in the English language it is typically considered to be less than an hour.

→ More replies (0)

-4

u/Electrical_Knee4477 1d ago

You're the one that's wrong here buddy. Seems like you didn't even read a whole section of their comment.

→ More replies (0)

-5

u/SirMildredPierce 1d ago

Your excuse works for the first hour. Anything after that is them being obtuse.

Why specifically an hour? So for the first hour you think they didn't realize what was going on, but after the first hour they know something is wrong but is pretending not to know? What happened after the first hour?

13

u/shito-ditto 1d ago

Because an hour is more than a reasonable time frame to deduce the guy isn't lying and is seriously hurt. Obviously they didn't realize or blatantly ignored it for all 6 hours of interrogation or he would have been treated sooner.

-4

u/SirMildredPierce 1d ago

Yeah but why the 1 hour mark? Did something happen at the 1st hour mark that I missed or something? I've seen the whole interrogation video...., have you?

→ More replies (0)

9

u/tombaba 1d ago

He told them he had. They chose to ignore him. Thats why they are worthless 💩

3

u/forkball 1d ago

Ah yes, getting in a few hits on is really common before being shot in the head.

The police fucked up.

1

u/tombaba 17h ago

Even if he had murdered that woman, and going with that assumption, he still needed medical care first. That bruising isn’t consistent with having had been punched in the face. A blow that would have bruised him like that could have fractured his skull. If he’s saying he’s been shot and you think he hasn’t that’s more evidence of brain damage from the blow. The way he’s speaking.

There is no excuse that can be made for them

-8

u/Electronic-Sun-2161 1d ago

That's one of the dumbest things I've heard in a while.

2

u/Freign 1d ago

I doubt that.

6

u/I_W_M_Y 1d ago

POOF

2

u/twiskt 1d ago

So like might be a real stupid question but how does a gsw to the eye not leave an obvious wound? I just can’t picture not having a oozing hole there

2

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/twiskt 1d ago

Doesn’t really answer my question though does it? Do eye wounds not bleed? Even looked up raccoon eyes cause I never heard of the term like yeah it looks bad but a hole in a human is still a hole in a human and one in the face at that? I just don’t see how it’s missed and I fear the pictures don’t help me either lol

1

u/tombaba 1d ago edited 1d ago

Sorry wasn’t trying to reply to you. Blood could have been internal. Eyes are filled with other fluid besides blood- it’s sort of a gel. I would expect to see the eyes sort of deflate, but lots of bruising.

1

u/twiskt 20h ago

Ew sounds absolutely disgusting lol but that does kinda make more sense

-12

u/UwU-Sandwich 1d ago

there was no (clearly) visible entry wound. maybe actually watch or properly read up on the thing youre discussing before making uninformed comments on it, makes you look less stupid.

and just fyi, i dont disagree with the take, but the rest makes it very obvious you didnt watch it yourself

16

u/tombaba 1d ago edited 1d ago

I can see it myself in that photo. Just takes a little bit of curiosity. The man said he’d been shot and they ignored him even though he was found with a shot woman and that wound in his eye.

9

u/I_W_M_Y 1d ago

Its like a summoning spell. You mention cop bootlickers and POOF

3

u/tombaba 1d ago

I know right? Just the word cop brings them out all erect to justify anything at all.

-6

u/7803throwaway 1d ago

This feels like the most wordy way I’ve ever seen someone describe “to put one’s foot in one’s mouth”.

19

u/Few-Improvement-5655 1d ago

Because that isn't what he meant. He was saying people were making excuses for the cops, aka being boot lickers.

31

u/NRMusicProject 1d ago

Police always seem to assume everyone but them are on drugs (even though they're more likely to be on something than their suspects). It's been years since I've seen the video and don't remember any of it, but I guarantee they assumed he was high or something.

When I was in college, a roommate and his girlfriend got in tons of fights. They'd usually argue out on the balcony and a neighbor would call the police. I was in classes from 7a-10p most days, so I'd come home, put something on the TV, and almost immediately fall asleep on the couch. When the police would respond to the calls and get let in, they'd try to get me to "confess" that I was on something because I had the audacity to fall asleep on my own couch.

9

u/i_tyrant 1d ago

It's such an easy excuse for so many situations. Anything to dehumanize the suspect so you can feel justified in treating them with hostility.

5

u/elizabnthe 1d ago

I don't even understand the point of trying to interrogate someone you think is on drugs.

3

u/hexadecimaldump 1d ago

Unfortunately interrogators are taught to distrust everything the interviewee says, and treat incoherence as stalling or avoidance of the truth. I’ve watched dozens of interrogations where the interviewee is in clear shock, or in the middle of some mental crisis, and most of them treat it as an opportunity to get an easy confession out of someone. Sadly, it often works and the victim confesses to something they didn’t do. Even more sad is the fact the Justice system allows these confessions in court, and prosecute based on coerced confessions. I think every police interview should be required to have a lawyer present without having to specifically request one, and a medical professional on standby for cases of shock and mental health issues.

1

u/khonsu_27 1d ago

His explanation made perfect sense in the end. I'm pretty sure he named who he thought were the killers.

1

u/Cr0n_J0belder 1d ago

Something called "deliberate indifference" in the law. Cops should have been sued not taking his obvious injuries seriously. They just decided that he did it, so wasn't a victim. I'm shocking no one sued over this.

1

u/tearjerkingpornoflic 1d ago

you see though, the cop had a hunch

1

u/GiantFreakyPineapple 1d ago

But the judge dismissed the case

1

u/P2-NASTY 23h ago

I feel like they should’ve been treating his wounds regardless if they believed him or not, before they even started conducting any interrogating..

1

u/LivingtheLaws013 22h ago

I was in jail one time and this old dude who never bothered anyone ever told the deputy that he was having chest pains. The dep told him to come back to him in an hour if he was still having pain. Guy had a heart attack. Cops absolutely don't give af about any of us

-5

u/Pernanator 1d ago

I can strongly suggest the cause of his mental issue is due to the bullet in his head, not the delay. Of course that is not disregarding the delay may have caused and leading to an increased infection rate resulting in additional complications.

All being said even with the facts as stated in the reply, rather than the photo header. The practical idea is commonly missed, through the use of specific words that mislead information such as “delay.”

Removing the word “delay” will allow the reader to understand it was the method of injury that caused the majority of his mental uncertainty resulting in the officers to view Ryan as potential suspect and not a victim.

Keep your minds open and think for yourselves fellas This is Reddit, you have time to be rational and collect your thoughts.

11

u/Ok_Literature1264 1d ago

You can strongly suggest but you can't prove. If he had gotten immediate medical attention rather than a """"delay""""" aka 6 hours of being interrogated then you could have DEFINATELY removed the """""""delay""""""" as a possible reason for his issue that lead to his early death.

But this is reddit and the amount of bootlickers online is unreal in the face of the proponderance of evidence pointing to these guys being monsters.

6

u/LastMuppetDethOnFilm 1d ago

"If you remove a word the title means something different"

I have rationally decided you have dirty kitty litter in the space usually occupied by brain matter.

129

u/greeneggsnhammy 1d ago

Just remember, there’s no songs called fuck the firefighters. Cops can be scum. Not all are, but a lot of them are. 

8

u/OhighOent 1d ago

Let me remind you ACAB means ALL cops are bastards. They dont't get to work for a system that treats people as they do and hide behind the shade of being "one of the good ones". If they were a good one they would have been fired.

1

u/jtfff 19h ago

I am a believer that there are good cops in the sense that they perform duties up to the standard of what is expected by the community. I also believe that in almost all cases they are complacent in a failing, corrupt system. A lot of these good cops might have turned a blind eye to something unethical because they didn’t want to cause a stink.

9

u/fladgate40 1d ago

not true. they are all scum. because of the blue wall. it is extremely rare that a pig will break the wall and rat out a fellow corrupt pig. so the bad ones are there for sure, but all others are complacent when they need to be.

4

u/kakajahhhbebb 1d ago

There's a song called fuck the fire department. Close enough I guess?

-4

u/__zagat__ 1d ago

nothing rhymes with firefighters.

2

u/The_Unknown_Mage 1d ago

Wrong bro

3

u/10art1 1d ago

Fuck the firefighters comin straight from the underwriters

1

u/LauraPalmer911 1d ago

My Star Wars knowledge finally comes into great use.

479

u/PythonVyktor 1d ago

You should be able to go back and update the original post.

221

u/comFive 1d ago

No. You can’t edit titles, only the content

1

u/EtherealMongrel 1d ago

You can edit titles on Lemmy!

15

u/Mavian23 1d ago

I'm not sure if that's a good thing. I don't know if I'd want posts to be changing titles all the time on my feed.

2

u/comFive 1d ago

Reddit alternative?

176

u/SilkenSeraph 1d ago

Is that true? I've been spending the past 30 mins trying to figure that out.

168

u/AndreKuhn 1d ago

You should as in 'it should be allowed'.

-1

u/series_hybrid 1d ago

"ut liceat" -Johnny Ringo

7

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

12

u/ntwiles 1d ago

Cynicism about upvotes aside, that wouldn't work very well because the correction he made wouldn't actually reach the people here. I feel like what he did is more likely to do that.

3

u/tkst3llar 1d ago

We all know why

5

u/Gassenger 1d ago

NOOOOO, MY HECKIN UPDOOTS!

0

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

-1

u/SilkenSeraph 1d ago

I find it unnecessary. I've already posted a comment clarifying everything.

1

u/ColonelBeav 1d ago

You can’t edit post titles. The honest thing for you to do would be to delete the post entirely now that you’re aware you’ve posted false information.

14

u/tardyceasar 1d ago

Damage is done as was the intent. welcome to information in 2025

5

u/Ok_Literature1264 1d ago

???? The initial post was correct? He was interrogated for too long, was given medical treatment too late, and died way way too early as a result of this. A innocent man. Where's the damage?

1

u/FritzVonWiggler 1d ago

title makes it sound like he died in the interrogation room, not 10 years later.

at least to someone with a reading ability above a 3rd grader.

1

u/Ok_Literature1264 1d ago

And further info tells you that he fought complications of this encounter for 10 years before he died to them.

if you have the empathy of a toddler and the reading skills above a 3rd grader you understand this without me having to spell it out.

Again, what damage does the post cause?

2

u/mashtato 1d ago

That guy must be a used car salesman. "It blew up AFTER it rolled off the lot, not my problem!"

-3

u/Interrogare-Omnia- 1d ago

This is correct.

6

u/ntwiles 1d ago

I think you're confusing "correct" with "cynical".

1

u/Jaded_Celery_451 1d ago

If you start to allow editing of titles of posts, you will immediately see why that wasn't allowed in the first place.

110

u/Synner1985 1d ago

Nicely done mate!! Massive thumbs up for posting sources so others can take a look into this mental case!

61

u/SilkenSeraph 1d ago

Thank you! ☺️ It took some time finding the right information. Your comments made me triple check the info, and I sure did get some stuff wrong. 😖

3

u/Thorolhugil 1d ago

Even with the errors, this is so well-sourced! Thank you for going to the effort to make such a high quality post. :)

1

u/LEEx513 1d ago

Did I overlook it, I was wondering if they found who did it?

-5

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

9

u/Brain-cold 1d ago

Dang bro calm down. He went out of his way to correct himself and provide sources. Anyone who is interested in the story will surely scroll down to see his updates.

9

u/SilkenSeraph 1d ago

What the hell is wrong with you? Every single reply from you is about upvotes. This is my first reddit post in years, and this post is NOT grossly inaccurate. The age being wrong isn't that big of a deal considering the comment that I posted clarifying every single misunderstanding in the comment section having close to a thousand upvotes, indicating that my clarifications may have been enough?

I'm purely on here to hear you guys' thoughts, not for upvotes. Your tone is very rude, considering the effort I've put in to post every single source I could find and the timeline in the comments aswell as answer as many comments as I can to further help people understand this story better.

57

u/O_o-22 1d ago

Please tell me the family sued and raked that PD over the coals for this massive screw up.

28

u/BabyBlastedMothers 1d ago

They sued, but apparently it was dismissed 3 weeks before trial after litigating for 4 years. Something to do with expert opinion on whether the delay in treatment caused any harm. Maybe the family's expert flipped, or attorney screwed up.

I can't find anything about an appeal.

3

u/thefuturae 1d ago

Insanely sad if true

15

u/Dab_Kenzo 1d ago

Qualified immunity

7

u/10art1 1d ago

Doesn't protect the department or city

13

u/BabyBlastedMothers 1d ago

I just read the Maricopa County Attorney press release on the conviction of the one of the murderers. It seems to be missing something:

When officers from the Phoenix Police Department arrived, they found Waller still conscious. He was able to identify the assailants and was taken to the hospital, where he had part of his brain removed and lost his left eye as a result of the gunshot wound. Detectives later learned that Richie Carver was a former roommate of Waller’s.

Odd there's no mention of the hours of delay while they tried to force a confession from him.

17

u/Shadowhawk0000 1d ago

Thank you for clarifying. This is terrible.

3

u/JustADude195 1d ago

They pretty much killed him and only got away because it wasnt immediate. Damn.

3

u/beaniebee11 1d ago

This one is crazy because he didn't even know what happened due to the head injury and he thought his girlfriend was just sleeping on the couch and "didn't want to wake her up." He sat through interrogation blaming him for her death for hours when he didn't even know she was dead. So sad.

5

u/KickHisAssSeaB4SS 1d ago

delete this whole mfer

2

u/thefroglover 1d ago

Wow, huge down vote!

2

u/MyFeetLookLikeHands 1d ago

did they catch the fuckers that did it?!

3

u/octaindafurball 1d ago

You really shouldn't post something without knowing all the facts.

1

u/Ok_Nothing_9733 1d ago

Thank you for this bc I’ve watched this interview twice before and thought I made sure he survived his injuries afterward, the title made me feel insane

1

u/go_gather_the_guns 1d ago

Of course it's the Phoenix police department, they're known for being extremely corrupt.

1

u/Most_Individual_953 1d ago

Did they find the killers/robbers ?

1

u/japinard 1d ago

Why wasn't the family able to sue the Phoenix Police Department?

1

u/FMF_Nate 1d ago

Ty for this

1

u/PeetoMal 1d ago

Did they catch the actual suspect?

1

u/Haasts_Eagle 1d ago

In your research did you see many accounts that the shooting happened on Dec 23rd and the police did their welfare check on Dec 26th? The youtube vid I watched said this was the case and that this dude was wandering around shot and confused for a couple of days. But I don't know if the video is fully legit.

2

u/SilkenSeraph 21h ago

Hey, I’ve seen that claim too in some YouTube videos, but it doesn’t line up with the more reliable sources out there.

Ryan and Heather were attacked on Dec 23, 2006. His parents got worried that night when he didn’t show up for Christmas dinner. They went to his place and eventually called the police. Cops did a welfare check that same night, found Heather dead and Ryan alive. He was interrogated for about 6 hours before anyone realized he’d been shot in the eye.

The idea that he was “wandering around injured for 2–3 days” doesn’t hold up under any solid sources. It seems like some videos have taken creative liberties or misunderstood the timeline.

1

u/Haasts_Eagle 19h ago

Gotcha! Thank you for your groundwork!

1

u/EL-HEARTH 1d ago

Hope this guy is up there walking with Heather

1

u/P2-NASTY 23h ago

I was gonna say I remember watching a video bout this case on youtube a really long time ago but I didn’t recall him dying because of the gunshot wound lol

1

u/Necessary_Echo8740 1d ago

Weird, I would have sworn up and down that I heard from credible sources that he spent days in the house after being shot, before being found.

Maybe this has some potential for a Mandela effect exploration

1

u/yayll 1d ago

Is this supposed to be exonerating? The cops denied medical care to a man with a bullet in his brain for HOURS and then he died of complications. The cops are at best accomplices to his murder. I hope they never know anything but suffering.

1

u/Pissyopenwounds 1d ago

Appreciate people like you taking the time to do this. Thank you

0

u/DoYouTrustToothpaste 1d ago

Officers enter the home, find Heather deceased, and Ryan alive but severely injured. Despite having a gunshot wound to the eye, Ryan is detained and interrogated for approximately six hours (four hours in a police car + two hours in interrogation).

Worthless pieces of human dog shit.

0

u/Vvvv1rgo 1d ago

Despite having a gunshot wound to the eye, Ryan is detained and interrogated for approximately six hours

ACAB is so valid.

0

u/Nigtellios 1d ago

The cops should be sentenced to death after literally killing this guy because of their incompetence.

-11

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

5

u/NiBBa_Chan 1d ago

...what part was inaccurate?