Strangelove wrote: ↑Fri Aug 28, 2020 12:39 pm
Newsflash:
Police sometimes shoot armed felons resisting arrest.
Yeah. There was a case in Stockholm about a year ago, that people were upset about, but the police involved were cleared of wrong doing.
A 25 yo man with Down’s syndrom sneaked out of his parents house around 2 am with his favourite toy, a toy gun that looked just like a real gun. So, around 3 am a concerned person calls the cops saying there’s a man with a gun behaving suspiciously in the yard. The police check the address and notice that there’s a woman living in that high rise that has received death threats from her ex, who is a known violent criminal. They arrive at the scene expecting to find an armed and dangerous man. They split up and enter the yard from two directions.
So, they see a man lurking in the shadows. A police woman draws her gun and tells the man to drop his weapon. Instead he moves towards her with the gun visibly held in his hand. Her colleague deems the situation dangerous and fires, the police woman hears the shot and thinks she is fired at and also opens fire. The guy with Down’s syndrome is hit by three or four bullets and dies.
A lot of people have been upset with their action, but I really understand the reasoning of these police officers. They expected a cold blooded murderer on the scene. The man they encountered pointed his gun at them, disobeyed orders and approached one of them gun in hand. It was 3 am and fairly dark.
The one thing I think the police messed up was that the father of the guy had noticed that he was missing and contacted the police shortly before the shooting. The police at the scene had not been informed about this.
Had they known that a 25 yo Down’s syndrome guy was walking around in the neighbourhood and might be carrying a toy gun, they could have drawn other conclusions when encountering him. But they did not.
That was not their fault, but the fault of their superior officer who should have made sure they got that information.
Anyway, shooting someone who points a gun at you, or a colleague, after giving him fair warning, is one thing.
Shooting someone seven times point blank in the back is another. Even if he were attempting to pick up a knife, which has not really even been confirmed yet. Guess we will find out at the trial.