Posted on 05/12/2005 11:02:33 AM PDT by jb6
Police say 67-year-old pointed gun, threatened them
GARY L. WRIGHT
Staff Writer
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer shot and killed a 67-year-old man in a wheelchair early Wednesday morning after authorities said the victim pointed a handgun at officers and threatened them.
Police wouldn't say how many shots were fired or where the gunfire struck Alexander Ehrenburg.
Police spokesman Keith Bridges told reporters that Ehrenburg, a double amputee, was shot at his home on Amity Springs Drive near Sharon Amity Road after he pointed a handgun at police officers and refused to put it down. Ehrenburg did not fire at the officers, Bridges said.
"He had a handgun in his lap and brought the gun up when the officers were at the door," Bridges said.
Bridges said police officers made "commands, requests and pleas" for Ehrenburg to put down the weapon.
"Our goal was for this to end peacefully," Bridges said.
Bridges wouldn't say what kind of weapon Ehrenburg had. "It was a handgun he waved at the officers," he said.
Bridges described Ehrenburg as "a barricaded gunman" who posed a threat to police officers.
Police are conducting criminal and internal affairs investigations into the fatal shooting. Bridges said investigators will try to determine whether the shooting was a "suicide by cop" -- a term used to describe a confrontation in which a suspect intends for police to use deadly force.
Ehrenburg's wife, who was in Poland, was notified of her husband's death Wednesday morning. Bridges said police contacted the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw and that an Embassy official told Ehrenburg's wife about his death.
Don King, who lives four doors from the scene of the fatal shooting, didn't hear all the commotion outside Ehrenburg's condo last night. He was shocked when he woke up Wednesday morning, saw TV trucks and crews outside his condo and learned of his neighbor's death.
King said Ehrenburg was an immigrant from Russia. "Alex came from a place where fear of police was pervasive," he said. "To get killed in his own home by police, that's a cruel fate. What a tragedy for everybody -- for Alex and the police. "
King said Ehrenburg was friendly and outgoing.
"Alex was an icon in the community," he said. "You could always see him riding around in his electric wheelchair. He'd frequently stop to talk to people."
The fatal shooting occurred more than three hours after firefighters and police arrived at the condominium complex and confronted what they described as an armed man in a wheelchair inside the home.
Bridges said a Salisbury physician, who had been talking to Ehrenburg, had contacted police and asked them to check on the man's welfare. The doctor said he was concerned after the phone conversation with Ehrenburg, police said.
Here's what police say happened when police, firefighters and Medic personnel responded at the condominium shortly after 9:30 Tuesday night:
When no one would come to the door, firefighters forced their way into the home. Once inside, they were confronted by the man in the wheelchair, who was armed with a gun and pointing the weapon at them, police said. The firefighters left the house.
The police department's SWAT team was called, and negotiations were attempted but cut short when the resident hung up his phone shortly before 11 p.m. The phone was later disconnected.
"He kept hanging the phone up on us," Bridges said.
Negotiators used loudspeakers and other means to resume communications but were unsuccessful.
Shortly before 1 a.m., SWAT officers opened the home's door and threw in a portable phone in hopes of re-establishing communication.
The man in the wheelchair raised a handgun from his lap and pointed it at officers, police said. He refused to drop his gun as officers ordered and continued to threaten officers with the weapon, police said.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Chris Kimbell fired his weapon, striking the man. Ehrenburg was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival at Carolinas Medical Center.
Kimbell, a 10-year veteran, has been placed on administrative duty -- standard procedure while the criminal and internal affairs investigations are under way.
If they felt safe enough to plead with the guy then they weren't in so much danger that they couldn't have just walked away.
So, go back and read what I posted. I'm sure you can figure it out from there.
We all know the drill.
.The threat was isolated.
There was no immediate danger to anyone he was not trying to go anywhere.
Like someone said just back off send the army away and let someone watch the place.
If it takes three or four days so what sooner or later he'll get tired.
There was no need at the time to press this to the point of death. It was handled badly.
What kind of comment is that? That is the way things are. Have you been sleeping your whole life?
These police officers were responding to a call. The man threatened emergency personnel and police officers with a GUN. How is he not at fault? Your default position is to blame the police regardless of the circumstances. There is but one person to blame for this: the man who threatened the police with a gun. PERIOD!
The question that he might harm himself was in the minds of the police. This was suicide by cop. The default position of many of you on this thread is to blame the police whenever a situation goes bad. Bottom line is you don't point a gun at a cop. They were on a call. The man in the wheelchair is totally responsible for this. Nobody else is at fault. You're just mad because it ended the way it did. If you expect the police to walk away when a doctor felt compelled to call them to a man's house because he feared for the man's welfare, you're not understanding the situation at all. All he had to do was say "I'm OK." Instead, he pointed a gun. He was either stupid or wanted to die.
I don't blame the police whenever a situation goes bad, and I'm not at all arguing that this fellow didn't bring on his own death. All I am saying is that from what I am reading in the article that police could have walked away and not killed this man. And the real fact of the matter is that all we have here is a newspaper article, and I've handled enough criminal cases that have been reported in the newspaper to know that reporters often get the facts wrong. They often misread police reports and misquote people they interview. They get the law wrong, and some of this they seem to do on purpose to stir things up and make their stories more interesting.
Anyway, this thread has gotten ridiculously long and pointless and I don't really want to participate in it. My feeling is that police most likely could have handled this situation without killing this man. But I wasn't there and I may be wrong.
Cop needs to be arrested.
Used to be, at any rate. This is the problem with the militarization of the police, funded by the Federal Government. That really got going during the Clinton years, but Homeland Security jumped on the bandwagon pretty fast. All the weapons, armor, militaristic training paid for by Uncle Sam, just waiting to be used in any little incident. Under the current emergency planning and training that's being disseminated everywhere (so we're all on the 'same page' and can 'communicate between agencies') the safety of the First Responders (police and fire) is paramount; safety of the non-FR at the scene are second; control of the site (and information) is third.
Tell me how a man is at fault defending himself when strangers break down his door?
No, I've been wide awake, been a police officer and constable and paralegal. I know when to kick a door and when to make peace. I know when to shoot, and most importantly when not to shoot.
It is extremely stupid to place a police officer in a situation where he feels that he has no other option but to shoot you. That is what happened here. The police were there legally. The man brought on his own death.
They weren't strangers after they called several times on the phone and he hung up on them, after he had threatened emergency personnel with a gun.
When a gun is pointed at you, that's when to shoot.
It wasn't illegal. The police were there legally. The man is at fault.
Ve Vil BE Komink TO Visit You shortly, Ve hope You Haf the Proper identity papers.
"When a gun is pointed at you, that's when to shoot". How about when a boyscout hatchet is pointed at you? Our local SWAT heroes shot a retarded kid after his parents called the cops because the kid had locked himself in his room. They busted down the door saw the terrified kid holding his hatchet and blew him away. End of Story. Sorry Mom and Dad, he might have hacked us through all that body armour and hurt us. We had to kill him to save him from himself.What a bunch of pussies!
Not if you are a police officer. You assess the situation.
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