Pond James Pond
New member
How far away should they have been? 20 feet? 45 feet? How close should they have let him get before they started running away from him to maintain said distance? Perhaps roadblocks should have been setup in all directions to give them the opportunity to leave the parking lot and run down the street away from the attacker to maintain the safe distance
I see that the only way you can address my point is by opting for the extreme.
If you are seriously suggesting that, in a car park of approximately 400 sq metres, the officers could not move about freely and had no alternative to but to get within his striking distance, get a fright and shoot him with anything up to 8 or 9 shots then I can only guess at your logic.
do you suggest turtle formation?
Actually, I was thinking a re-enactment of the Battle of Thermopylae would have been ideal...... because one police man ramming him with a shield is just plain unrealistic....
If US police training is what it is said to be, I don't see why 4 officers, and a police dog, could only disarm a guy with a length of metal in an open area by shooting him.
Furthermore, a riot shield would make such a manoeuvre even less of a risk to the officers.
You have obviously never seen someone permanently injured or killed with a blunt object. I assure you it is much easier than you would think.
I haven't seen this, and hope I never do. However, I am certain never to see someone killed or injured by a blunt force instrument if they are out of range of said intrument.
None of this explains why they had to get that close to him.
And if you watch the video again you will see that the culprit CLEARLY began to rear up his arm to strike one of the officers.
As far as the video is concerned, I saw what the guy did. He turned with the implement toward the officer.
One hand appears to be at one end and the other hand at the other end. Not a swinging pose, but a thrusting one and not as powerful.
Once more: If they hadn't been so close they would not have been at risk.
Personally, I feel shooting was excessive, at that stage and premature in that situation. The guy was full of holes within 14 seconds of him walking quite slowly from the building.
I feel that the polices' approach escalated things by limiting their own options.
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