What justifies the police shooting almost 30 rounds at an un-armed mentally ill person(Killing him)......?

mazz

Why would a cop stand in front of a car? To shoot people. Common sense tells anyone they did not have to kill the guy, but they do it all the time. Just like in NYC undercover cops run up on a group of guys at 4 am with guns pointed at them. I would try to get the "F" out of there. They sprayed those guys with 31 bullets if not more. You are correct. They could have shot the tires out. This is played out over and over again cops killing people when there is another choice. A mental man had a knife and the cops told him to put it down. A cop kept walking towards him and gets close and the guys swings at him and he shoots the man to death. Ummm...why not keep your distance and wait for a stun gun and shoot the man with that or a bean bag shotgun? I could go on with a million and one stories. Not all cops are bad, but the bad ones screw the reputations up of the good ones.

You can't 'overkill' someone. When they're dead, they're dead. Hmm, ANYONE was using a car as a weapon against me--I'd unload my weapon (if I had one) on them too. It doesn't matter if he was mentally disturbed....that is like using the race card. How bout a woman who has PMS?

My thoughts--you threaten law enforcement...or attempt to kill them--you take your chances. That includes running from them as well.

tabulator32

You answered your own question.

About half of the rounds actually hit him. This means there is a margin of error and they need to be sure they stop the man from doing further damage.

In addition to that, each cop is acting in their own defense and is not going to wait and rely on the guy next to them to save them.

If there were "a few police cars" rammed and each car had one or two cops in it, I imagine each one of them fired a few rounds in self defense (since the man was TRYING TO RUN THEM OVER WITH A CAR) and this resulted in the rapid cessation of attack from the angry, mentally ill person.

What would YOU do if someone maliciously ran into you.

Radman

All good answers so I'm not going to re-hash what is already been said. Shooting tires out does not disable a car, in fact, deflating tires sometimes creates a worse situation in that now you have a 1 ton weapon (the car) that is still capable of traveling at a high rate of speed and the driver has even less control of the vehicle than he/she realizes or actually has. It is not like what you see in the movies, and unfotunately, a lot of people think the hollywood portrayal of Law Enforcement is just that. (Don't even get me started on the CSI Effect...perhaps one of the worst things that could have happened to citizen perceptions of L.E.).

A high speed pursuit entered our jurisdiction one time after a neighboring jurisdiction deployed spike stips. The tires deflated but the driver continued over several miles in our city on mostly rims (which is like driving on ice), striking numerous parked cars and property, untimately taking out about 1/2 a block of parked cars. The pursuit ended because his vehicle ended up on its roof. The driver was not shot, but he was injured after one of our K9's introduced himself to him. Luckily, he was the only one that was injured as he did not stike any moving cars in traffic. This occurred at 0230 in the morning. Could you imagine if it would have been at 5 PM or even worse, at 3:30 PM when schools were letting out?

***Charlie D***, that is the most insensitive comment one could have made. Have you ever thought about what an officer that is involved in a shooting goes through? Anyone that thinks "paid administrative leave" is a vacation is closed minded! I'm so angered by your statement I can't come up with words to describe how horrible an officer shooting actually is, not only for the officer, but for his family, his co-workers, his department, his community, and lets not forget the victim's family. Paid administrative leave is gut wrenching because while the offcier stammers at home (notice I didn't say sit or lounge) second guessing his actions even if they were the best he /she could have done, a group of people sit in a board room atmosphere and play Monday morning quarterback about his actions, taking their scheduled break for lunch/dinner and going home on time to their families, having absolutley NO clue what the situation was like that this officer faced because they were not there. They take their sweet time (and rightfully so) judging the officer when all the officer had was a second (and that me be a generous amount of time) to evaluate the situation, determine a counter reaction, and then actually react. Officers are trained for this, but no amount of training prepares you for the aftermath of being judged by every person that has a mouth that thinks they need to weigh in on "what happened."

I'm not saying every shooting is justified, but in this question, as it was explained, the officers reacted how they were trained...they acted UNTIL the threat to themselves and anyone else in close proximity was eliminated. There may be a whole list of other factors involved that we (citizens) do not know about and may never know.

Your answer, Charlie D was just stupid, insensitive, and ignorant. Next time please think who it affects before you post it.

Hammer

Are you a police officer? No. Have you ever, in your life, been in a situation wherein deadly force might be necessary? Unlikely. The bad guy was using deadly force against the officers, thus, their use of deadly force against him was appropriate and necessary. Police officers don't "shoot out tires" or shoot the gun out of a bad guy's hand. That's TV and movies, and that's not real. What's real is stopping the threat, and if the bad guy dies in the process, which is a risk, then he's no longer an imminent threat to the officers or to the public, including you, your wife, and your kids, who might happen to be standing around. You might consider walking a mile or three in someone's shoes before you criticize. BTW, most cops I know don't care much for donuts.

skip

Don't blame the police. Blame the politicians who abrogate their responsibilities to the mentally ill at budget time every year. It sounds to me as if this person should not have been out in the first place. "Care in the Community" does not work unless it is properly funded and co-ordinated with institutional care (by which I mean care, not imprisonment). The police in this situation were in a no-win situation.

My wife is a psychiatric nurse who has worked in the community and in institutions. She left her job on Friday because she is fed up of managers and politicians playing sick games with some of society's most vulnerable people. If she (and others like her) got the support and funding they need to do their job properly, tragic incidents like this would not happen.

California Street Cop

Shoot his tires out? Come on. He tried to kill officers with a car. Step back and really think about it. If someone is coming after you, I don't care if they have scissors, a knife, a gun or a club, you defend yourself. A car is a very deadly instrument. Its not their job to go out there and let people try and kill them.

truth

Oviously the cops lacked pit-manuever skill. Where did this happen anyways? What city? Cause I never heard of it.

Dead Marxist

He wasn't "un-armed". A vehicle can be (and was, apparently) used as a deadly weapon

There is no such thing as "overkill". If lethal force is justified (and it was) then there is no more debate over how many bullets. It could be 500 rounds and not matter one bit.

You wrong when you say they didn't have to kill him. That is their job, to ensure the public safety.

Next time, learn the law before you go spouting off

Always Right

Prolly because he was trying to kill them. Are they supposed to just stand there and let him run over them?

chocolahoma

As soon as he rammed his car into a police car, he committed an atempted multiple homicide. Using a car as a dealy weapon is just as bad as pointing a gun and shooting at a person.

Policde are trained to respond to attacks of this nature. Their training holds that they eliminate the threat. They can't aim at the suspcts ankle, or shoulder, because if he is on drugs (or crazy enough) these kinds of wounds will just enrage him more. They are trained and instructed to aim for the chest, with enough shots to put the target down.

Mental illness doen't enter into their calculations. Police don't have the time to decide which gun-wielding loonies are mentally ill and which are just maniacs.

Brian C

You're absolutely correct, he didn't have a gun. He had a two-ton, mobile deadly weapon. Any officer he smashed with his car would be just as dead as if he'd been shot dead. Deadly force is met by deadly force. If faced with a similiar situation, I'm not gonna stand around and wait to see if another officers's shots have stopped the threat. I'll fire as I was trained to do: You stop when the threat has ended.

danashelchan

Would you feel differently if this person, while running from the police and ramming cars, hit you or someone you love with his car?

If this happened, you would be saying here that the cops should have used more force.

ROBERT G

when you shoot a deer does it fall over and die, no ... it runs in the woods for about 1/2 a mile then bleeds out. so when a person is shot, they still pose a threat as long as they're still alive and if they are continuing to run over people. there were probly more shots fired but that's all that hit him, so get over it.

MRJERK715

3 cheers for the cops!! 30 rounds actually came from 8 to 10 guns dranw on this menace! And did this idiot have a stamp on his head saying he was mentally ill? He was mentally capible to know how to drive a car and smart enough to know ramming a car might be a way of getting away! Why not look at all the good cops do protecting you instead of something your liberal agendaed media pounced on to make a buck!

NONAME

How is shooting out tires going to stop a car? Here's a thought. Limit your opinions to subjects that you're knowledgeable in.

i'm susan

only 30 rounds? maybe they ran out of bullets

Charlie D

Police LOVE to shoot people that run!
It makes them feel powerful!

moon_flower_unicorn_power

sounds like you need a better district attorney

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