Texas Officer Shoots, Kills Mentally Ill Man Holding a Spoon

originally posted by: MysterX
a reply to: Shamrock6

They said he was in a garage...the other shots, if they missed would have gone into the garage wall i would have imagined.

Besides..if shots going astray are of paramount concern for LEO, why are they so apparently trigger happy?

Could have done many other things than shoot him in the chest...could have gone for the shoulders, the stomach (which may have given time for medical assistance) upper legs, pelvic region...or could have tasered him, threw tear gas into the garage and waited for him to come coughing and spluttering out, then taser him...could have cornered him in there and used the hailer to attempt to calm him down...loads of things could have been done.

But after all it's so much easier to just kill a person these days.

SMH at the people who actually think that in a situation such as this that anyone is going to go for a shot of any other type than to stop the suspect cold....a moving suspect at that.

Ever gotten into a car accident? Why didn't you avoid it? Kinda like that.....seconds to react to a situation and make a decision...training is not to wound, it is to stop the advancing of a potential threat. You shoot at the largest target on the threats body.....that being the chest in most cases. In this case the threat has already proved to be aggressive by breaking into a house and banging on windows to try to get in.

And you are assuming the officer had tear gas and a taser....

If someone was banging on my door,
the first thing I would do
would be to turn on ALL the house lights ! then
assess the situation, prepare to defend,
inquire, call police. All done without
opining the door.

a reply to: ToneDeaf

doesn't do much good if the cops take an hour to get there and that is if they show up.

originally posted by: Shamrock6

originally posted by: Sremmos80
a reply to: Shamrock6

You have a different set of laws regarding what you can do facing a threat than a cop does.

Exactly, why?

That is a major issue people have, cops are above the law that the rest of us have to follow.

Is it your job to protect the community? Is it your job to answer calls from homeowners in the middle of the night when somebody is breaking in to their house? Is it your job to respond to bank robberies? Is it your job to respond to an active shooter in a mall? No? Then that would be why there is a large difference between your right to protect yourself and a cop's responsibility to protect the community. And why there is a large hole in your attempt to put the two on equal footing.

But, it isn't your job to be an executioner either. This isn't 2000 AD. You're not Judge Anderson or Judge Dredd.

Everyone gets due process, everyone is assumed innocent until proven guilty in the court of law.

And for the record, you're pretty well armed right? It isn't like you're carrying a 4 .32acp and walking about w/o body armor right?

Don't tear your rotator cuffs patting yourself on the back over a job you volunteer to do.

Derek