The police, for better or worse, have a 25 foot rule when it comes to knives. If someone starts to move towards them, even a few steps, and they're within 25 feet, the police ROE says they are justified to shoot. Whether you agree with it or not, that's their ROE. That guy was acting very weird though. He looked out of it, like maybe he was on something. The first few pops were beanbags I think at the beginning of the video.
I can't tell wtf is going on. I saw some people move to an area by him. Are there people hiding on the floor out of sight? Need some bodycam footage from the guys on the far right entrance.....
Such a weird situation.... people everywhere. The guy was acting weird. Tons of cops. Honestly.... too many cops. If I had one major complaint about how the police handled that, it was that there were entirely too many fucking cops in that one room. With that many people in such a confined space, and adrenaline pumping, this was bound to happen. Edit - there was like 12 cops in that tiny room.
Yeah, thought they might all shoot each other. Knowing he had a knife and not a gun that maybe explains why the seemed to just stand there waiting to get shot.
They clearly fired as soon as he started moving forward, which follows their rules of engagement. I just think there was entirely too many people in there to actually de-escalate the situation. Dogs barking. 12 dudes screaming. Other people in there. I think the only reason why they didn't shoot him earlier was because there was people behind him.
Everyone said that blowing up the black guy in Texas was justified even though he was cornered because he said he had bombs planted around the city. There were people in this building that were in much more clear and present danger than that situation had.
If we start (keep) mowing people down because “they’re acting weird” we will run out of land to put the dead bodies. Work or live in any urban area, any downtown/city in America and there are weird and wacked out people on every block. I wish they would just keep the person at bay, get the person down somehow and get them in cuffs. If they guy starts shooting your shoot back. But holding a knife from 20 feet away and we just kill people seems aggressive.
I mean.... if you act weird after stealing a car and you're holding a knife...... yeah..... there's a chance you'll be shot.
The punishment for stealing a car and acting weird just probably shouldn’t be death is what I’m saying.
An execution. Nobody was in any danger at the time police shot him, nor was he moving towards them or moving at all really. He was cornered and a large barrier between police and him made him attacking them pretty impossible. No attempt was made to communicate with him, nor were tasers used.
I'm not ready to condemn the police nor am I ready to condone them. I just don't know enough about it and it seems like no else has a clear idea about who was at fault, either. But when you take a drug like angel dust or speed or Lord knows what else is out there and you walk around waving a knife, you just can't expect a pleasant result all the time.
People have been known to continue charging with a knife even though they've been shot multiple times. I once knew a guy who visited me at my home and said I could shoot him in the heart with my Python 357 magnum and he'd still be able to cross the room and strangle me. I knew he had worked with troubled children at Tongue Point where he raped multiple young girls. He was one of the low lifes that had been on food stamps while he went through college. He later became a teacher at Seaside High School. I was in the lounge of American Legion Post 99 in Seaside where my stepdad was the financial officer and asked a guy at the bar if he knew him. This fella's response was yes, he's a terrific guy. I guess that shows what a con man can do.
Police have built into their rules of engagement that if someone is within 21 feet with a knife they are considered a mortal threat. If they begin to move towards you, you might not have enough time to shoot them. Whether you agree or not is another matter, but this is part of their training. http://www.policemag.com/channel/weapons/articles/2014/09/revisiting-the-21-foot-rule.aspx
