Posted on 11/29/2013 7:24:42 AM PST by Uncle Chip
Police admitted that the fatal shooting of a mental patient armed with scissors could have been prevented if the road sergeant equipped with a Taser had been at the scene in time.
Michael Eligon, 29, was walking toward police with the weapon and a ‘blank stare’ when he was shot three times by an officer in Toronto, an inquest heard.
A chilling video of the dramatic shooting shown to the inquest captured Mr Eligon’s last moments as he walked toward police who had their guns drawn and yelled ‘drop it’ on February 3 last year.
Under cross examination, Constable Scott Walker told the inquest that a Taser would have been a lest lethal option of subduing Mr Eligon but that the sergeant carrying one was not on the scene at the time, according to the Toronto Sun.
Mr Eligon had escaped from Toronto East General Hospital, where he was being treated for depression, earlier that day wearing just socks and his hospital gown.
The police hunt for Mr Eligon began after he stole two pairs of scissors from a convenience store, stabbing the attendant in the hand as he tried to stop the escapee....
Police finally found him wandering down Milverton Boulevard in East York and surrounded him with guns drawn....
Unperturbed, Mr Eligon continues towards police, who back away until one officer backs into a parked car.
As Mr Eligon advances to within four to six feet of the policemen, Constable Andrew Boyd screamed ‘shoot him’ and one officer obliges, firing three shots. Mr Eligon crumples to the ground....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Where guns are banned, the most unusual things become deadly weapons!
What, they didn’t have time to bring in the SWAT team and choppers?
O.O Why would they shoot him if he was already dead?! >.<
If he was dead, what’s the point. Target practice?
I remember with Rodney King and many saying if only they had a net in the trunk to throw over him.
You deal with what you got IMO, and here you had a guy with scissors going after the police. (bad move)
That is like coming after the police (or any one else) with a knife. If the police would have not gotten this guy and the person went after some innocent person who with a scissors, then what?
Tragic, but I get this one so far.
Apparently cops don’t carry nightsticks anymore. Or possibly are not trained to use them. I suspect a person well-trained in such use is more than a match for the average nut with a pair of scissors.
A scissor stab wound can bleed like one from the old three point bayonets. You can’t close it up well.
Little-known fact. LAPD experimented with nets, sometime prior to the RK case. ACLU sued to prevent use, on basis that use of nets was demeaning or otherwise a violation of human rights.
Personally, I think a net would be a whole lot less painful and damaging than even a Taser, much less clubs or bullets. But I suspect the problem is the "treating like an animal" image, particularly when applied to protected minority groups.
So we deny the cops truly non-violent and low-harm methods and force them to use methods of controlling violent people that are inherently more dangerous.
Zombie?
Especially when they were armed with scissors....??
“Apparently cops don’t carry nightsticks anymore. Or possibly are not trained to use them. I suspect a person well-trained in such use is more than a match for the average nut with a pair of scissors.”
True, but psychotics can be noted for their extreme strength and difficulty to subdue. To say nothing if he was on any drugs to boot.
Not worth getting a nasty stab wound over in my opinion. All it takes is a lucky lunge into the mid-section.
Everyone is focused on the wrong thing.
The police officers got to go home safely to their families that evening.
Nothing else is of consequence.
I think these constables need to get some training re scissors at their nearest grade school kindergarten class.
Why did they shoot him if he was already dead? Bad headline writer syndrome.
Yeh, except for the time I watched from under a bar table while a skinny, near retirement cop walked up to a crazy 280# redneck who was waving a bowie knife and disarmed him with a baton. The cop did break the guys arm, but didn’t choose to kill him.
Of course, the cop had walked the length of the Korean peninsula, twice, in his youth. And since he wasn’t a coward he would have been ashamed to kill someone unnecessarily.
Modern cops are trained to be cowards or start out that way in many cases. And no, going home safely is not their most important goal. If it is, what do we need them for? They can just STAY home and the citizens will handle it.
They used to lock up crazy folks. Now they leave them in homeless splendor on the streets. Things like this are going to happen.
At least this crazy guy isn’t going to have any more victims.
They just need to outlaw the private ownership of scissors and make it a crime to even steal them without a permit/S
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