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 ...
wow...Does Houston PD think anyone will buy that?
No sale Jodi!
The man in the wheelchair was schizophrenic. He might have been a bit out of his element in a group home.
Government oppressors and the kings men now sees private sector America as heavy luggage, a burden to government, too many hogging too many resources, too many who might push back, too many who are way sick of controlling punitive government, at all levels.
They must be regulated, controlled and taught who is boss, at all costs.
I hope the crippled guy becomes part owner of the HPD !
Yer welcome ;-)
When the SHTF, I will consider all cops a hostile gang and respond accordingly.
Maybe just a bit. Well, he won't feel out of place where he is now.
Yes. Poor man. May he rest in peace.
Local news says the wheelchair guy cornered the cop and made him feel threatened.
///
good summary.
...police sworn to serve and protect,
were a lot faster to draw guns,
for a much weaker threat,
than George Zimmerman.
-
maybe i’m getting senile,
but i don’t remember anything like this,
when i was growing up.
i respected officers then.
Translation: “I really, really, REALLY wanted to murder the guy. So I did.”
How about the death of an innocent man who was not physically capable of killing the officer?
That is not an “unfortunate decision”.
That is “murder”.
I can think of several ways to “disarm” the victim of his pen.
None of which result in the murder of said victim.
If I can do it, that any officer, who has been *trained* to do just that can do it.
He *chose* to murder the man.
I think you are making assumptions about the information available to the officer at the time. Hindsight is 20/20, but a guy making a decision on the ground can make bad decisions. Know what I think? Even if you are a double amputee in a wheelchair, you are out of your mind to threaten armed police officers, or any other armed person and you are primarily responsible for the consequences.
Do you really believe that that that cop “murdered” a person whom he considered to be harmless and a not a threat? If so, you are most certainly delusional. At worst the cop is guilty of manslaughter, and even that is a stretch.
Know what else I think? I think the victim most likely often exhibited violent behavior, but our current mental health protocols do not allow people like to be confined in a facility where they are do not pose a danger to themselves and the community. If he had been locked in the padded room where he belonged, he would be alive today.
The mental hospitals turn these people loose and expect the police to pick up the pieces.
Any police officer that can't tell the difference between a pen and a knife from a few feet away doesn't belong on the force, simply on grounds of low IQ alone.
However, I would note that when the officer is not in possession of all the facts, that is the absolute worst time for him to be whipping out his sidearm and blasting away. Theoretically, use of the service pistol is supposed to be an absolute last resort, the kind of thing you do only once you have positive ascertained that a credible threat actually exists - not when you just see an object in somebody's hand that you haven't identified as a weapon - especially when the assailant is a one-armed man in a wheelchair. Don't they teach tactical sense at cop school anymore?
Geez, couldn’t he just kick him in the chest or something?
That's not how I read it at all.
If I was an ablebodied individual and let a double amputee in a wheelchair”corner”me, I would be so ashamed of myself that no one would ever see me again. The cop shot the man because he is a kill happy bastard that enjoys killing people.
Don’t you live in Texas? If you do , do you feel any safer now that the brave officer took care of the one arm and one leg manic in the wheelchair before he could cause more mayhem?
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