“A man was shot and killed by police officers in North St. Louis, Missouri after allegedly charging at officers with a knife, Chief Sam Dotson said at a news conference on Tuesday. The incident took place just days after police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, sparking violent protests throughout Ferguson, Missouri, 10 miles from North St. Louis.
The suspect had “taken energy drinks and a package of pastries from a nearby convenience store,” was “acting erratically” and “did not drop the weapon” per police instruction, Dotson claimed. The man then approached both officers, wielding the knife in an “overhead grip.” Witnesses say the man yelled “shoot me, kill me now” and was fatally shot once he reached within four feet of the officers.
The officers have since been placed on administrative duty. The suspect is described as a 23-year-old black male, but hat not yet been identified.”* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
*Read more here from Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/08/19/3473247/police-officers-involved-in-fatal-st-louis-shooting/
Comments
If a guy with a knife is four feet away, I would expect a cop to always make that call to shoot to kill. I had a cop speak at a self defense conference and tell a story about a guy on drugs that they tasered and it shot him in the leg, but it didn’t affect his as much or as quickly as it normally would because of whatever drugs he was on. So I would say at four feet, shooting to kill makes perfect sense. At 15 feet I could see it either way, doesn’t take someone long to run 15 feet.
Cenk, there is a video from the incident that shows it start to finish and the man got no closer than 15 ft from either officer and gave ample time to be tazed or shot merely once to subdue. Instead he was shot up to 8 times at a distance of no concern holding if he was holding a knife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-P54MZVxMU&bpctr=1408652306
Cenk, like you said, they could have tased him to subdue him, or they could have shot him in the arm or the leg. They didn’t have to kill him.