Posted on 04/23/2015 3:59:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Officers no billed in fatal shooting of man holding a screwdriver
A Dallas County grand jury has declined to indict two Dallas police officers who fatally shot a mentally ill man holding a screwdriver, NBC 5 has confirmed.
The grand jury no billed the officers during a hearing Thursday.
In March the attorney for the family of 39-year-old Jason Harrison released video of the June 2014 shooting to the media and said it raised questions about the use of force by Dallas police officers John Rodgers and Andrew Hutchins. The video shows an officer knocking on the front door of a home in the 200 block of Glencairn Drive. Harrison's mother opens the door and calmly walks outside, inaudibly telling officers something then saying her son was schizophrenic and bipolar.
When Harrison appears in the doorway holding a screwdriver in his hand, Rodgers and Hutchins instruct him to drop the screwdriver. According to the officers, Harrison then made an aggressive or threatening move, reportedly lunging toward an officer, before they opened fire.
Harrison's mother Shirley spoke exclusively to NBC 5 and said she called 911 that day after her son stopped taking his medication and made violent threats.
“We maintain the footage shows him not stabbing, not thrusting, not lunging in a way that would jeopardize the lives of these officer,” said the family's attorney, Geoff Henley. “He never leaves the front porch and he’s gunned down.” Henley told The Dallas Morning News that the family was severely disappointed at the grand jury's decision, but that a federal civil rights lawsuit filed in October would go forward.
Attorney Chris Livingston, who represents the officers involved, said once the video is slowed it shows Jason Harrison move toward officers and his arm rotate down into a stabbing motion as the first shots are fired.
After the Dallas Police Department completed their investigation, the officers were placed back on duty as the case was handed over to the Dallas County district attorney for referral to the grand jury.
That must have been some screwdriver.
Heartbreaking story. Mother walking ahead of son out the door thinking it was just another of the million times she called police, but it did look like he made a move with the screwdriver.
Moral: don’t call police unless you really really mean it.
I’m not trained to deal with these things, but when I drove e cab, and the guy pulled a tiny blade, it looked as dangerous to me as a bazooka In that moment
To a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
He advanced on the officers, who had guns drawn, while armed with a deadly weapon.
He may not have been of full mind but, the officers have to make a split second decision to defend themselves.
Sad but, they did nothing wrong.
Why didn’t they just shoot it out of his hand, like the Lone Ranger or Doc Holliday on TV? [rolls eyes]
Why didn’t they stand far enough away that he couldn’t hurt them with a screwdriver?
A screwdriver can be just fine as a weapon. The issue is in part threatening motions ...reasonably interpreted in a split second...and how far away they were.
I didn’t see the video, but the lawyer seems to be explaining the quality of the lunge rather than the existence of it.
Reminds me of the passage in the book Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway:
'...Carlson's Raiders [Marines] busily armed themselves with a new weapon - the 14-inch screwdriver that was part of a PT boat's standard equipment.As one of the Raiders explained, it was "good for the ribs, if you know what I mean."'
Of course, those were battle-hardened young Marines, and they were toting 14-inch screwdrivers.
This business - not so much...
CONFRONTATION Uber Alles
Ossifers cannot be seen to retreat in the face of peasantry.
Is there another video that I didn't see?
“This business - not so much... “
So, how “short” a screwdriver are you okay being stabbed with?
I trained as a police officer long ago. They do an exercise where you hold your empty revolver out at arms-length and an individual with a rubber knife comes at you from 30 feet away. You don’t get many shots before they’re right up on you, stabbing you.
You can easily kill someone with a screwdriver, and nutcases are often very strong or high on adrenaline. The kook should have stayed on his meds.
Aren’t police trained to stay out of lunging distance?
I saw the video posted here. The shooting was unnecessary, over-reactive, and tragic. Like the Cleveland shooting of the 12 year old boy, the police were way too quick to go to shoot-to-kill mode.
That kid got all of 2 seconds.
Why didn’t they stand far enough away that he couldn’t hurt them with a screwdriver?
************
So, when officers want to arrest a psycho holding a knife or screwdriver, all he has to do is make menacing motions, and the officers acquire a duty to back-off to avoid having to kill him in self defense?
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