Tearful officer reveals police had no choice but to shoot and kill hostage-taker - Sensationalist Headlines

A Perth police officer has fought back tears as he described opening fire on a man who was holding a woman hostage, saying he had no other option because he believed she was going to be killed. First Class Constable Tom Gryta was the first officer to arrive at the Carlisle delicatessen where 38-year-old Brendan Lindsay took a worker hostage at knifepoint on November 8, 2014. Mr Lindsay, who it's believed was under the influence of the drug ice, was shot up to 11 times by four police officers, including Constable Gryta, and now an inquest is examining the circumstances surrounding his death. Constable Gryta, a dog handler, told the inquest he was driving past the deli when he saw Mr Lindsay's father, John, signal to him to stop. John Lindsay then motioned for him to go inside, where he saw his son Brendan, who was holding a knife, grab the worker, Sheila Tran. Officer tried to negotiate Struggling to contain his emotions in court, Constable Gryta described having his taser pointed at Mr Lindsay, before swapping it for his firearm when he saw him put the knife towards Ms Tran's throat. The officer said he repeatedly commanded Mr Lindsay to put down the knife and let Ms Tran go, but he refused and they ended up outside the delicatessen. He described the situation as "dynamic" and "very fluid", saying on at least two occasions he saw Mr Lindsay "raising the knife in a stabbing motion, downwards, stopping just short of the hostage …" ... Constable Gryta said throughout the entire incident he believed Ms Tran was going to be killed. "… If the situation stayed as what it was, we as officers had a duty to protect the hostage," he said, After finishing his evidence and on the way back to his seat in court, Constable Gryta stopped and shook hands with Mr Lindsay's father before the pair embraced each other. John Lindsay had earlier concluded his evidence to the inquest by saying he had no animosity to police because they had been faced with a "very difficult situation". "Whilst I think things could have been done a bit differently in hindsight … I think Brendan's situation highlights the difficulties we face as a society at present and I hope we can get on top of it." http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-11/officer-tells-inquest-police-shot-brendan-lindsay-in-carlisle/10232220

It's sobering to see this kind of attitude from an officer, against a dangerous suspect no less. Meanwhile in the United States, certain police departments show absolutely no remorse when they kill a 12 year old boy with a toy gun.

Then you should try and read articles from other news outlets. There are plenty of comparable examples of cops in the U.S being emotional and remorseful. Most of the time court proceedings are not publicized by the news. I feel like you are being disingenuous on purpose to just continue an agenda. You're making assumptions about people that you don't hear about or see behind the scenes of things. You wouldn't have known this officers struggles if it wasn't for the fact the court testimony was published like this.

Obviously you can get both good and bad stories if you look out for those but the fact there's so incredibly many cases of misconduct etc that's unfortunately tolerated or covered up by MOS', Morrison's point above is very important to remember, I don't think there's nothing wrong with that. There's no "agenda", it's more a fight for civil rights if anything. I love stories of cops doing something they didn't have to, like giving homeless people shoes or things, but I find it more important to highlight that there are still massive issues that need to be rooted out or it's only going to get worse.

Well if we didn't keep hearing/reading about trigger happy cops in America then maybe we wouldn't have the viewpoint that America has so many trigger happy cops?

As an onlooker shouted something like "just kill him", he said Mr Lindsay pulled the hostage up "to protect him more". This dense motherfucker right here needs to be charged with something.

Excellent job oversimplifying a problem in the U.S, There are over 765,000 sworn police officers in the U.S, that doesn't include part time, civilian, or support personnel. If you add them you're looking around over a million.The U.S has 325.7 million people. On average there are approximately 1000 police shootings/homicides a year. It is pretty hard to find any stats that show how many of the shootings are unjustified. Over the years there has been approximately 20-30 high-profile shootings (Just from the articles I counted) which have caused national outcry. I found another sources that said 80 were charged with murder over several years, so lets just go with 80. So you are telling me 80 out of 765,000 represent the entire police force? It is easy to blame police for everything, but most of the unjustified shootings have unraveled a greater issue of poverty, disparity, and racial inequality. If you want to have an honest conversation about the state of racial equality and how the police/legal system plays into it that is fine. But, do us all a favor and save the dramatics of the police being trigger happy people. You're not going to get shot walking down the street. You need to look at where the shootings occur, what the socioeconomic status are, police standards in that area, etc. There are many factors which lead up to the issue that happens. Again I understand the importance of highlighting policy brutality and issues, but I also see what the new's media is attempting to do. They vilify police, minorities, sensationalize stories for profit, etc. While they are reporting events, there is an hidden agenda behind it. Every single career field has people who commit wrong doing, negligence, or corruption. I understand that the police is a critical service which should be held accountable to the highest of standards, but I refuse to believe the narrative that police are trigger happy idiots who want to gun down all people.

Pretty much what you said. I don't think every cop is out to gun down people but there are merely severe issues with society, law enforcement as an insitution itself and those in combination lead to bad use of force, corruption etc. I'm personally a little more concerned about putting cops on a pedestal these days from my own experience. I used to be in the sort of police apologist camp before, where no matter what they did, they were in the right and just how many people were like that, it kind of left a mark in me. I still see it a lot. There's a lot of people who do good in law enforcement though. I just wish they would step up more often to speak about the bad.

There's really no other way to say this than you're both ignorant and a colossal idiot. Maybe this breaks the rules, but I really hope if I was making posts this bad someone would tell me that. It's well documented as hell how rough officers take even the most justified of shoots, and I guarantee you it's far from the norm for an officer to walk away from a situation like the one you're bringing up without feeling horrible about it. I know you operate exclusively on headlines and not on knowledge, but holy shit man, get a grip.

Well what do you expect me to do? Everytime a negative article shows up do I google search about cops to find good news to counter it? If people are only going to talk about the bad shit how do you expect me to react really?

That's exactly the problem with mainstream media. Don Henley's Dirty Laundry describes it perfectly. Stories about "officer was good person" don't get clicks/views/reads. Stories that provoke outrage like "officer shoots unarmed black man" or "officer stabs puppy" do. And people don't do independent research, they only listen to what the news tells them.

But there's barely any good shit being posted, I'm not saying it doesn't exist but I'm not exactly seeing much of it here.

maybe you should have some intellectual integrity and recognize selection bias instead of trying to use it as an excuse to justify making sweeping generalizations?

Then quit being a lazy and dishonest. If the news media told you every day that climate change isn't real (Which some news media does say), would you believe it? It is pretty easy to read an article and see what type of verbiage and reporting style they use. You look at an article and see if they are just filling in the blanks to start controversy. If you find it acceptable to view people a certain way because the news media tells you to, that is fine. But, don't get upset when people call out you for being dumb and lazy. If I listened to what the media says and take it as literal fact then I would never talk to a black person, would have died from eating chocolate, know climate change isn't real, that trump is the best president on the planet, Russia never interfered with our election, etc. You see? Don't use the media as an excuse to validate shitty or lazy opinions. If you cannot come up with an argument or even back your own statement then just keep that statement to yourself. It will save you some embarrassment in the long run.