I am a police officer AND the father of mentally challenged son.
It’s a tragedy and I am firm believer that no shoot is a good shoot. No one wins.
However, if my son came at me or my wife, or any other innocent, with a knife, I would not let him stab them and if that meant shooting him, then I would do so.
And I would be destroyed forever afterward.
I don’t blame these officers and they will have to live with this shooting for the rest of their lives.
I had a childhood friend who was killed in a police confrontation.
He had Asperger syndrome and could not read their intentions.
But the police were NOT at fault...just a horrible thing and I know they suffered more than he.
Reports are that is was a closed multi tool. Not a “knife”.
It is extremely difficult for a police officer to unerringly gauge what is going on inside the mind of a disturbed individual. For “normal” people, it seems very simple: If a police officer says to drop something, you drop it. Can always discuss whether the cop was correct or not to demand that you drop it - later, when things have calmed down.
For a disturbed person, such a “simple” directive may not be easy to follow. But the cop can’t know that. The cop’s #1 job is public safety. If the armed individual is reasonably perceived as a threat, and does not comply with a directive to disarm - and then advances, deadly force may be necessary. As appears in this case.
Tough choices that come with the territory...
I read an article about justified police shootings that stated over 75 percent of officers in that situation quit the job within 3 years.
I read an article about justified police shootings that stated over 75 percent of officers in that situation quit the job within 3 years.