I would love to know the reaction of some of our more politically correct members here if they were in the shoes of the officers involved.
If the perp was resisting arrest, fighting back and grabbing at your holster, knowing YOU have a family at home and a job to do, putting YOUR life on the line everyday, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?????
That's a great question SH. Being a cop in today's environment in the states is a thankless job & at the end of the day the biggest thing is to get home to your family like you said.
So when the cops got there & ran him I'm sure they had an idea of who they were dealing with. He was calm & compliant until he flunked the breathalyzer & the cuffs came out, obviously knowing he was going back to prison.
Putting yourself in these officers shoes is not easy. After the struggle on the ground he managed to disarm one of them of their taser...just in that instance most cops would have shot you if not endangering the other cops life that was in the struggle. Resisting arrest is one thing, trying to disarm a cop is a recipe for getting killed...but desperate people do desperate things.
So the chase ensues & if he didn't turn around & point the taser at the officer that chase could have gone on for a city block. But as everyone with common sense pointed out when you point a weapon at a cop that can immobilze them you've left the officer with few options.
So if that was me & he turned my partner's taser on me I would have a shot him...hopefully in a non lethal way waist down. Any cop worth their salt from 8-10' with a Glock that holds 17 rounds should be capable of doing that. You get shot in the ass or thigh once or twice with a 9mm/45 believe me you won't be running too far you'll be on the ground screaming & begging for help.
Now before all you police experts weigh in & tell me about "center mass" let me tell you about a conversation with a retired RCMP after a few drinks in his garage couple years back. He served out in Edmonton in the drug squad in what he called the wild west of the late 70's & 80's. Had to discharge his weapon on dozens of occasions & said he killed less than a handful of people.
Said he lost count of how many Indians came at him with a knife over the years, said it was typical behaviour on a Friday or Saturday night! "That was always a mercy shot to the lower abdomen & didn't matter how big two shots they were on the ground moaning". They had a saying something about aiming low & aiming high & I can't remember it exactly. Basically aim low to wound them aim high & to the right to kill was the jist. Went on to say rightfully could have filled many people with lead but had a conscience & I didn't use any more force than he had to & some guys were the opposite. When he watched the Sammy Yatin video he couldn't believe what Forcillo did, "Fucking coward he said I'd spit on em if I could a disgrace to the badge".
Great video a few years back of a mentally ill dude advancing on a lone female cop with a knife in Vancouver, she new he was mentally ill & shot him once in the upper thigh when he closed the distance on her. A lot of male officers would have shot him multiple times & probably killed him, she used common sense & some compassion.
The taser is the best non lethal use of force out there, but when a violent felon takes that from your partner & points it at you...you have to neutralise that threat, just a shame he had to shoot him in the back i would have never done that no matter what training they gave me
