Posted on 03/08/2007 6:35:29 AM PST by Ellesu
A Louisiana National Guardsman shot and killed a New Orleans man who pointed what was thought to be a rifle at a group of police and other guardsmen early Thursday morning.
According to Sgt. Joe Narcisse, an NOPD spokesman, the incident happened shortly before 1 a.m. in the 2100 block of Benton Street. The guardsmen were patrolling the area of Benton and North Miro streets when they saw a man riding a bicycle holding a hacksaw and behaving suspiciously.
Guardsmen got out of their vehicles and pursued the man, Narcisse said. The man pulled out a knife and then threw a piece of broken glass as them, cutting a sergeant’s arm. The man ran into a nearby home as the guardsmen called New Orleans Police for assistance.
Police officers arrived on the scene and accompanied the guardsmen in the house. As they approached the man, he pulled out a BB gun that looked like a rifle and pointed it at them, Narcisse said. One of the guardsmen drew his weapon and shot the man several times in the chest. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Narcisse said the man had no identification on him.
I think we have a Darwin Award winner.
He was asking/begging for death.
New one - bring a BB gun to a real gunfight.
no JBT issues here. Just the utter stupidity of bringing a bb gun up against automatic weapons. I rule this suicide by cop.
Suicide by cop (or NG in this case)
SUICIDE by BB gun.
Another reason the anti-gun crowd will want to ban my Son's BB gun.
Expect an uproar by the media over this within a week. The man will probably turn out to be someone's poor misguided relative who has been having hard times since the hurricane because George Bush wouldn't rebuild his house and his wife and kids are starving and he had no where to turn. And the NG learned how to kill in Bush's war and is a murderer. Or something along those lines. I hope I'm wrong.
If it were me, this man never would have had the chance to throw broken glass. When the knife came out, my gun would go off! That's my policy.
Nice grouping!
You ever see one of those BB guns out there? The really look real and a military guy is trained to respond to threats using weapons. This amazes me.....we give these kids guns, in the military, then tell them they can't use them.
Oh well, that s*** happens. New Orleans is now a slightly better place than before.
Oh yes. I fully expect that to happen. They will want to know why, when happening upon a man with a hacksaw in one hand and throwing stuff with the other, and a gun on his person, the Guardsman didn't bother to stop and have a friendly conversation with the idiot to find out his true intentions. What a backwards world this has become.
I think you just about covered all the bases...
He had already threatened officers with a knife and assaulted officers by throwing a chunk of broken glass at them, which could cause a serious or even deadly wound as well.
The officers had already gone to considerable lengths to apprehend this violent criminal at risk to their own safety and the safety of others he might have come across as he fled.
I remember about 15 or so years ago a Marine unit was on patrol on the rugged border of Texas in the Big Bend country. One of the Marines saw a gun pointing at him from a cluster of bushes and fired his weapon. He killed a teenager who was supposedly guarding his families goats. Turns out he and his family were also squatters from the opposite side of the border. Well, lo and behold somehow they "found" a lawyer to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the 19 year old Marine.
I can't remember all the details but maybe some of our Texas freepers can. I remember being totally outraged about it. My memory has gotten rather spotty since then. Must have killed too many brain cells.
For me personally (not law enforcement). It would depend on how far away he was and how quickly I though he could close the distance.
For a law enforcement officer, which has a duty to protect the public, I would agree with your policy. Regardless of if the perp attacks or flees, he has shown himself to be a violent felon who is a danger to society.
Someone could argue that the officer should give the perp a chance to drop the knife before shooting him. If the officer confronts someone and they already had a weapon in their hand, or the pulled it out when confronted, but before they could have reasonably identified that it was law enforcement that was confronting them, then they should be given a chance to surrender.
If they pull out a weapon to threaten law enforcement or after they have been confronted and have identified the police, they made their choice and placed the officer in the situation where they must remove that threat to themselves and others. A person that threatens the police or others with a weapons should not be allowed to flee unless the officers are unable to prevent it without endangering others.
On a parallel note, I'd also consider a car a deadly weapon, and if a perp attempts to flee in a car that person and that car becomes a threat to others. The driver has shown himself to be indifferent about causing others serious injury by taking flight in the car, and the officers should be authorized to ues whatever force is necessary to apprehend that person, including deadly force.
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