[eeriegeno]

I think you are underestimating how dangerous a knife can be. If this is what happened, the cop had every right to shoot her dead before she got close enough to be able to do any damage, sad as it is to have to do this to someone who might not have been able to help being mad.

Horse manure.........

If a cop can't take down a woman with a knife, he should not be on the force.

Sounds to me like the cops murdered a very sick woman.....

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Even experienced martial artists would hesitate to take on a knife-wielding assailant, and most cops (even in Britain) get a shockingly low level of training when it comes to taking on melee weapon wielding assailants. All it takes is a bit of misdirection on the assailant’s part, and the next thing you know, that knife is in your guts. Also factor in that people who are agitated and mentally ill can be so charged up on adrenaline that they become unbelievably strong.

I personally know a policeman who is a second degree black belt in jiu jitsu who has been stabbed on duty twice, despite being a genuine, bona fide 6’2” martial arts badass, never mind an average run of the mill cop.

Sorry, but based on the facts here, the cops where justified in shooting her. It was sad that they had to, but they should not have been obliged to close in on a knife-wielding madwoman when they had a safer option.