Posted on 01/26/2015 9:36:02 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Longview Police Department placed three officers on leave after a 17-year-old girl was shot and killed in the lobby of the station last week, the Marshall News Messenger reported.
According to officials, Kristiana Coignard entered the Texas police station on Thursday evening brandishing a weapon. Police spokeswoman Kristie Brian said Coignard used a phone in the lobby to call police dispatch and asked to see an officer.
When officers arrived in the lobby, she "came at the officers" with a weapon, according to Brian. Police did not confirm what type of weapon Coignard had, but Longview Mayor Jay Dean said that she was carrying a knife, according to the Marshall News Messenger.
Justice of the Peace James Mathis said Coignard was shot "multiple times," according to the Marshall News Messenger.
Police have not released many details about the incident. It remains unclear why Coignard entered the police station and what occurred before she was shot.
The 17-year-old was living with her aunt, Heather Robertson, who told ThinkProgress that her niece had been struggling with mental illness.
“I think it was a cry for help," Robertson said about Coignard's actions last week. "I think they could have done something. They are grown men. I think there is something they are not telling us."
Robertson said her niece has struggled with depression and bipolar disorder since her mother died when she was four years old. Coignard has been hospitalized twice after trying to commit suicide. Robertson told ThinkProgress that Coignard "was only violent with herself."
The three officers involved in the incident were placed on leave, and the Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting.
By your rules a 6 year old with a stick would get shot.
Who pulled the trigger?
“Who pulled the trigger?”
Those that allowed her to still walk the streets, she should have been institutionalized.
So Reagan is responsible? Isn’t he the one that changed policy to stop putting sick people in hospitals?
I don’t care who did it we’ve sure seen the results of it.
“So Reagan is responsible?”
California Gov. Ronald Reagan signed the Lantern-Petris-ACT in 1967’
She would not have qualified for release under that act.
You’ve never been a police officer, have you? Knives are more dangerous than guns in many situations. One of the first things you’re taught.
So well said, wardaddy. Been here since 98 and tragedy makes jerks come out.
There are some things that are funny. Insulting and demeaning a mentally ill young woman is not one of them.
Most of the “funny” crazy stories that are posted are about manics and schitzophrenics who have traveled into psychosis. When their psychosis is over, they are truly embarrassed and shamed, and more that we would like to know, commit suicide. The Internet has turned what would normally have been a story over coffee in a local diner into a world wide shaming.
Many people here have family and friends who have mental illness. Some people here, just like everywhere else in the world, do have mental illness, I would assume.
Mentally ill people are some of the bravest people I know.
Please give the nastiness a break.
I rode for the Sheriff’s Department for 5 1/2 years early 70’s to late 70’s. The only serious injury I took during that time was a 4 inch kitchen knife in my left lung from a young lady about her size. She was sweet enough to do that while I was on the ground trying to put the cuffs on the husband who had just beat the chit out of her. He did 2 months in County she did 16 months in State. I did a few days in the hospital. Had I seen her coming I would have shot her in a heartbeat.
She needed help. Cops are too quick on the trigger regardless of whose fault it is.
Just because you can kill doesn’t mean you should. Stopping a beating heart is a big deal.
“She needed help.”
Walking into a police station and attacking officers with a knife is not a plea for help.
“Stopping a beating heart is a big deal.”
I’m afraid I may know more about that than I want to.
Yes it is a plea. In cases like this is a desperate plea. In some cases there is no choice, if a cop can’t disarm this waif then they are incompetent.
No...they sound correct. A REAL man wouldn't have needed to shoot her. A REAL man would have assessed the threat...UNDERSTOOD that I had THREE (3) buddies with me...would have looked for an alternative. PERIOD. That's what a REAL man would have done. A wuss would have gone through their justifiable "I feared for my life" checklist and pulled the trigger.
Thus....draw your own conclusion about yourself. If you ever need help...I suggest you call some real men.
It was nothing more than a successful suicide that could have been prevented before she ever walked into the station. Two previous attempts and a history of mental illness, the ball was dropped long before she picked up that knife. This dropping of the ball is just a repeat of the sad state our help for the mentally ill is in. Sandy Hook, Arizona, Colorado are examples of that same ball dropping.
“weapon” = ballpoint pen held in a threatening manner.....
If it were truly a “weapon” they’d have told us what it was.
They said it was a knife, but until I see the video I'm guessing it was a spork.
Sure, it’s broken.
Heck I could disarmed her and I’m a fat Ole guy. Three big strong highly trained donut munchers wouldn’t even have to put their coffee down.
What you said, plus another one.
Watching a few too many Steven Seagal movies? Should the officer deliver a witty one-liner after disarming her?
However, there are two or three police training videos that show LOTS of knife attacks from edged weapons on people. Everyone should watch them before mouthing something as insipid as "it's just a knife", or "they could have disarmed her".
Anyways, here is one, quiet, deadly individual that kills two cops, permantly incapacitated two, and grievously injures one or two more.
When it goes wrong, it happens fast forward to the 6:00 min mark for the mayhem to begin on the armed cops by someone that "could have easily been disarmed by wusses".
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