mrray13 wrote;
Something I haven't seen mentioned, the officer didn't go rushing in. He waited by the door, and called for the guy repeatily. No answer
Actually. after the officer had asked the woman to exit and, he got
to the front door there was only
1:18 that elapsed until he made visual contact with the subject, that is not exactly a great deal of time.
So what was he to do? Keep waiting and hope the guy isn't bleeding out?
There is no doubt that the officer had to try and establish the subjects status but, when he arrived the woman was
inside with the subject, she even answered the the officer's question and assured him that he had not hurt himself
yet but, that she feared he "might" She did not seem to fear for her own safety and, had the presence of mind to realize that something was wrong enough to call the police and advise them as such. The officer did start his communication with a calm and re-assuring demeanor, however,
immediately upon making visual contact he changed to a "command voice" and had his weapon pointed at the subject. ( that is, of course, understandable )
we are trained to respond to the threat of lethal force with the threat of lethal force.
Again, the subject, and the officer made visual contact with each other at the same moment. The officer perceives the subject with a knife as a "threat" Is it not also possible that the evidently
unstable subject might perceive the man pointing a firearm at him and yelling, a "threat" as well ? Is that training, or simply instinctual ?
you don't take a Taser to a knife fight. I have had my Taser fail on several occasions, all due to the probes not sticking, and in one case, not a wide enough spread.
If Tasers are so un-reliable, why do departments continue to issue and train with them ? Does OC spray fail equally as often ?
Lastly, while on camera it appears the officer had all the time in the world to make a decision, I can tell you with 100% certainty, that officer had a split second to decide what to do.
According to the video, he had slightly over
17 seconds from his initial visual contact until he fired his first shot. The officer stopped using any sort of "calm" or "talking him down"
immediately upon making visual contact. there were about 12 of those 17 seconds that the subject stood in place before beginning to slowly move.
The subject was reported as possibly suicidal, he has just been in some sort of MVA, is it
possible that he might be unable to understand the circumstances as they unfolded in the 1 minute, 35 seconds that the officer and subject were in contact with each other ?