San Francisco Police Kill Man Armed With Airgun in Apparent Suicide by Cop
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[QUOTE]Two San Francisco police sergeants fatally shot a man apparently intent on suicide outside their station after he pulled an air gun from his waistband that they thought might be a firearm, officials said on Monday.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]The man, whose identity was not immediately released, then stood in the driveway of the parking lot, blocking the exit of the police sergeants as they tried to leave in a car, police said.The sergeants got out of the vehicle and told him to leave, and the man walked out of the lot and lifted his sweater, showing what appeared to be the butt of a handgun, police said.
Police said the sergeants shot the man three times as he lifted what was later determined to be an air pistol that shoots BBs or pellets, not a handgun, from his waistband.
Police said a search of the man's phone revealed suicide letters including one titled, "Dear Officer(s)." The letter was released with the permission of the killed man's father, police said.
"You did nothing wrong. You ended the life of a man who was too much of a coward to do it himself," the letter said, according to police.[/QUOTE]
[URL=http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/06/us-usa-police-sanfrancisco-idUSKBN0KE1RM20150106]Reuters[/URL]
Sad. Another thing that makes me wish for better procedures, equipment, and options in dealing with situations like this. It's not just about preventing accidental shootings, it's about keeping mentally ill people from being killed or committing suicide (and worse, forcing others to participate). There has to be something other than lethal force as the default response to the perception of a threat.
Unfortunately, even changing procedure wouldn't have helped. The officers didn't have control of the situation. No chance to de-escalate. I don't hold the officers responsible. It was obviously no accident.
The real failure, of course, is our outdated, shitty, inadequate healthcare system. This kind of event is almost always preceded by a whole chain of neglect and refusal to provide access to proper care. And, of course, his decision to force others to participate in his suicide.
This is just a colossally shitty situation. My heart goes out to them, getting tricked into killing someone is perhaps the most devastating way. It's so difficult to rationalize it to yourself in hindsight.
inb4 cops get blamed by the public anyway
"YOU SHOULD HAVE DISARMED HIM"
Dude made his choice. They made theirs.
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[QUOTE=En-Guage;46873609]inb4 cops get blamed by the public anyway
"YOU SHOULD HAVE DISARMED HIM"
Dude made his choice. They made theirs.[/QUOTE]
I don't think they had a choice. He wasn't Tamir Rice. The cops didn't roll up on him already prepared and eager to start shooting. He wasn't a 12-year-old that you might expect to have a fake gun. He took them off guard and executed a deliberate plan to provoke a shooting.
I mean, god damn, even I believe there are some setups where a good outcome isn't really possible.
They made a choice what are you talking about, I'm not saying it was the wrong one either
What else were they supposed to do? Let him draw what appears to be a handgun?
They should have shot him in the leg obviously
[QUOTE=Keegs;46873746]They should have shot him in the leg obviously[/QUOTE]
snip
pointless
[QUOTE=En-Guage;46873656]They made a choice what are you talking about, I'm not saying it was the wrong one either
What else were they supposed to do? Let him draw what appears to be a handgun?[/QUOTE]
Anyone who pulls something out of their waistband that resembles a gun should immediately be shot. If I'm a cop, I'm not taking that chance, I'm going home at the end of the day. I don't care who you are, where you are, how old you are, what you look like - you made a bad choice, and I'm not waiting around to see if it's the real deal.
When cops give people time to drop a weapon that's being brandished at them, they end up like Kyle Dinkheller.
God that's just awful, I always feel so bad for the LEOs involved after shit like this because they just couldn't have known. Imagine killing someone out of instinct to protect your own life and then realizing hat the weapon they drew was fake.
Now imagine you find a letter afterwards from the man you shot, addressed to you, saying that you did nothing wrong and it was all planned out.
That's heartbreaking
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