[Chron] Houston officer kills double amputee in wheelchair.

Normally I have been critical of cops, but there is bias in this story. More to the facts, a cop doesn't just shoot someone in a wheelchair.

 

If he thought it was a gun, okay. A taser would still be better, but there may be good reason -- maybe they're trained to opt for the gun when the opponent has a gun; maybe the taser wasn't at the ready; I don't know. If he thought the pen was a gun, though, some kind of force is warranted.

But the way the article says the guy was stabbing at the officer with the pen, it sounds like he thought it was a knife, in which case, lethal force is excessive. The problem with cases like these is the public generally hasn't much faith that the PD will do justice in finding the truth and acting accordingly.

 

HPD spokesperson says he was trying to stab him from a foot away. Then it stands to reason that the officer did not believe the man was yielding a gun. Cops should be held to a higher degree of accountability.

 

not sure why all of you are so sympathetic to the guy who was killed.

he was attempting to stab (murder) the police officer. sorry, but at that point, you are fair game to any self-defense method the officer chooses.

quit acting like this was some innocent, upstanding citizen who a crooked cop murdered for a thrill killing.

 

some of you, rather.

 

I agree. I mean, really... pen had to be planted.

 

Well, let's see.

He's done it before (not saying that one wasn't warranted...just pointing out he's killed in the past)

It was a pen. A pen held by a one-arm, one-legged man in a wheelchair. You can't seriously tell me there was about 1,000 better options than killing the guy. Maybe the guy wanted his autograph.

 

He could have rolled up on the cop while having the pen concealed in his lap. It could have been dark since this was very very late at night and other elderly are sleeping. The man was already belligerent so the cops were probably patient enough to try to calm him down before he got cornered.

Cops are in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. The public will always be against the cop no matter how much impartial information is given.

Here are the different scenarios and how the public would have reacted:
A) Cop shoots the guy like in the story and this is the reaction. Public also questions why they didn't decide to taser him instead.
B) Cop tases the guy, he has a seizure and/or heart attack. Public says "they tased a one-armed, one-legged ELDERLY man! Don't the cops know the risks of heart damage!? Why didn't they tackle him instead?"
C) Cop tackles the guy. Guy sues cops for physical harm. Public says "why did they have to harm an innocent old guy with one arm and one leg!?"

No matter what, the media will sensationalize the story to be sympathetic to the victim (who also posed a threat to himself, the cops, his caretaker, and other elderly in the group home) and the public will be against the cops. In all gray areas of police duty, the cop is always wrong in the eyes of the public.

 

How about not swinging anything at a freakin cop?!?!

 

I'm eagerly awaiting Another Brother's comments in this thread.


So many things he could do with it. Or he could just make a legit comment on being a police officer in this situation.

 

He tried to murder him with a pen. Where was SWAT to deal with this killer?

 

If you actually read on this case, it says the cop shot only one bullet. There are times to be mad at the police but I think in this case it was a reaction off of the cop's recent experience and although it's tragic he should have at least a little sympathy.

 

I thought cops deal with amputated crazy people all the time. It wouldn't be surprising if the victim had threatened cops with his pen in the past. His number was up when he finally ran into a cop who had little experience dealing with his situation (or had an itchy trigger finger).

 

I wish I could have been there in person to witness this event so that I could formulate a meaningful opinion on this tragic occurrence.

 

weird to me that if it was a knife, nobody would be placing any blame on the cop.

jamming a pen into somebody's neck kind of can accomplish the exact same murder.

 

In a previous officer shooting thread we discussed why officers react the way they do. Think of it in their shows (there is not enough information here to determine if this was justified), someone could pull a weapon on you at any moment, any routine traffic stop can be your last, any citizen could decide to turn violent if he/she disagrees with you, so when someone reaches for something you instinctively react with your weapon.

The guy had an arm, he can still fire a weapon, just because he was a double amputee does mean he can't be dangerous.

It looks like he likely wasn't trying to hurt the officer, but the officer doesn't know that at the time. We don't know yet if this guy had the pen out the whole time, if he reached for it, what kinds of things he said to the officer (may have made repeated threats to set up the escalation).

It's very easy to read a story and assume the cop was unjustified, but consider all the circumstances first.

 

Ya, I remember we discussed this too. Someone said that it is standard training policy to unload your clip when firing on a suspect, dunno if that was confirmed or not.