Posted on 09/23/2012 5:35:03 AM PDT by Yashcheritsiy
A Houston police officer shot and killed a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair Saturday inside a group home after police say the double amputee threatened the officer and aggressively waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.
Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer in his wheelchair and was making threats while trying to stab the officer with the pen. At the time, the officer did not know what the metal object was that the man was waving, Silva said.
She said the man came "within inches to a foot" of the officer and did not follow instructions to calm down and remain still.
"Fearing for his partner's safety and his own safety, he discharged his weapon," Silva told The Associated Press.
Police did not immediately release the name of the man who was killed. They had been called to the home after a caretaker there called and reported that the man in wheelchair was causing a disturbance.
The owner of the group home, John Garcia, told the Houston Chronicle that the man had a history of mental illness and had been living at the house about 18 months. Garcia said the man had told him that he lost a leg above the knee and all of one arm when he was hit by a train.
"He sometimes would go off a bit, but you just ignore it," Garcia told the newspaper.
Silva identified the officer as Matthew Jacob Marin, a five-year veteran of the department. He was immediately placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard in all shootings involving officers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Never, ever call the police to your domicile for anything whatsoever. Circumstances will deteriorate to an even worse situation if you do.
Police are not your friends, marriage counselors, mediators, pet sitters, teen advisors, etc....
After getting their rocks off killing dogs, they work their way up to tasering and beating in the skulls of the homeless and the mentally disabled.
After taking out their roid rage out on "street trash", they've worked their way to executing defiant cripples.
After honing their warrior skills popping people in wheelchairs, they might have the balls to take on elderly conservatives in convalescent homes.
I have no doubt these heroes will be calling for backup, in that instance. When the only balls you have are 9mm, they need 50 of them to get the job done.
Kelly Thomas.
Kelly Thomas, PROTECTED AND SERVED.
Mother Gets $1m Settlement After Police Beating Death of her Mentally Disabled Homeless Son
It’s quite so plain or simple to me.
Serious? You like living dangereously. What's the chance the cops will go to the wrong address, which may be yours?
I personally respect cops, but I totally believe that because of the authority bestowed on them (that ranges the gamut from arresting someone to even taking their life), that cops should always be held to a much higher standard. They should never be given the benefit of a doubt but rather a higher degree of confidence should be expected of them. The more power one is given the more accountability one should be expected to provide. Police officers are human beings, with the same virtues and vices the rest of us have, who have been given formidable authority.
That shouldn't require us to give them 'a break' but rather to demand more accountability and sense from them. I do not know what caused this cop to shoot a one armed one legged wheelchair bound man who somehow had sufficient dexterity to makeover a wheelchair while brandishing a pen with one arm (maybe it was a motorised wheelchair, or maybe the man was telekinetic). Time will tell what happened. However, under no circumstances should the shooting cop be immune from people 'second guessing' him. As an officer of the law he should be put to a higher standard and be expected to provide full accountability. Especially considering if a normal civilian had shot a one legged/one armed person, and claimed he got cornered, that the cop would have 'second guessed' him all the way to the back seat of the cop car.
Cops do not deserve understanding or the benefit of a doubt. They are keepers of the peace and enforcers of the law, and should be paragons of what they represent. To serve and to protect. Most cops are brave people who serve a tremendously important role, but since they are humans there will be bad apples. Considering the size of the police force, this would mean that the bad apples may be in the high hundreds to low thousands (maybe much more?). The work of good cops shouldn't be used to cover for the bad apples.
Evidently a requirement for being a police officer is that you be a frightened little pussy.
Yours is the best post on this thread.
Houston’s finest at work.
well...this proves the pen is not mightier than the pistol
can’t see justification for this one whatsoever
I guess uppity babies next. Hysterical crime victims next.
An armed, free society founded on moral ground has little need for law enforcement.
Guess why the course of our country is 180 degrees in the opposite direction.
Unions and protection rackets are two sides of the same coin.
At least no dog was shot /sarc
Other than he could do it and get away with it, there was none.
Exactly, gotta watch out for them sissy college boys.
There is also no doubt how this would have ended if this had been a a pair of orderlies, instead of a pair of cops...assuming that neither of the orderlies was Jerry Lewis or Mo Howard.
You are assuming that the police officer was in possession of the all the facts. He was behind the assailant who was waiving “something” in a threatening manner at his partner. He made an unfortunate decision, yes, but why do so many Freepers automatically take the anti-cop position in these incidents. I know that neither you nor I are in possession of the facts, and you probably never had to make a split second decision that may have meant life or death.
Like the cops say, better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.
The guy in the wheelchair really needed to go to jail for trying to stab someone with a pen.
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