Man carrying toy sword shot 6 time in the back by police

I just find it more and more worrying how this country's police officers justify their use of deadly force. What happened to Tazers? pepper spray? rubber bullets? put the guy out of commission if his blunt sword was that much of a threat but don't so willingly place him in a body bag.

About a year ago I witnessed a police raid that took place on a couples home during a phoned in domestic dispute, they had beanbag guns. It shouldn't always be shoot to kill.

The value of life is serious discussion we as a country need to have. The officers had the upper hand here and as far as I'm concerned there's no excuse for the force issued.

This is a toy sword:

This is not a toy sword:

It can be hard to tell, especially from a distance, if a blade is blunt or not.

Point is, we'll have to wait to see how the investigation goes. If the cops got jumpy and shot the kid, yeah, blame points to them. If the kid charged the cops, waving his sword erratically, blame begins to point to him.

Why are police so bad in these kinds of engagements? I know for a fact that the police have other means of arsenal besides guns. Even if he was attacking the police (which I highly doubt...6 shots in the back), using a gun should be a last resort in that kind of situation.

even if they had to use their gun, a shot to the leg would have put the guy down.

No excuse for 6 shots other than cowardice.

it's a bit of harsh comparison isn't it

this is a toy sword as well, you can find it on amazon and it isn't the only one

The cops should have known better, even if he comes swinging, even if it's a real sword.

But still , this happened in america. I can understand the way of thinking and for that I blame the system more than the cops. In a place where guns are legal and it's pretty much every man for himself, I can understand that cops are on edge when conflicts arise, I would be too, especially in places were people are poor.

In europe mistakes are made too, but a lot less. In all my 37 years I only heard once that someone got killed by accident and that wasn't even because of gunshots but a blow to the head. Of course , we're socialists and guns are illegal. Maybe something to think about?

No matter how you put it, 6 bullets for a man with a blunt sword? That isn't right but like I said I don't blame the cops, I blame the system.

Exactly, trained police officers should be focused on disabling criminals. They shouldn't be so trigger happy with their weapons. One of those six bullets could have also potentially hit another person if shot wrong.

@evildead6789: I can go into a city or any place here in europe swinging a real sword or whatever as a madman.

I can assure you I won't get shot for exactly the reasons i gave you before.

They would simply taze me

Are you black?

@thegerg

Getting shot in the legs sounds less gruesome than getting 6 times in the back. I also thought cops were trained to shot low to slow down a person,

Was there really a threat considering he was shot in the back? TC's link says that there was a suspicious person only, no crime occurred.

So all gun shots should end in fatality? Or did I misread?

I can go into a city or any place here in europe even if I'm black, white, yellow, red, green or pink swinging a real sword or whatever as a madman.

I can assure you I won't get shot for exactly the reasons i gave you before.

They would simply taze me

Who taught you this? I mean I know you said you weren't talking about this particular case, but lets use it as example anyway.

At one point do you consider someone a threat to shoot center mass? A line has to be drawn in all situations.

@evildead6789I can go into a city or any place here in europe even if I'm black, white, yellow, red, green or pink swinging a real sword or whatever as a madman.

I can assure you I won't get shot for exactly the reasons i gave you before.

They would simply taze me

Sounds like Europe is the place to be. What part of Europe you live in?

well besides the uk maybe

lmfaoo

You're focus on something totally irrelevant dude. A guy got killed. Why put so much energy into something that really doesn't matter very much? Chill dem titties.

So based on what we know so far, the cops were in the wrong then? Was the kid really a threat?

@evildead6789

So the UK is just as bad as parts of America?

Not saying you're wrong but, common sense is also not bringing out toys that resemble real weapons. People have been shot for toy knives, toy guns, airsoft guns, etc. It's been common sense to me since I was 5. Why do people have a hard time understanding this?

@PSP107: One thing that I can tell you is that it would be really, really stupid for a police officer to simply try to stop a target by aiming at their legs. I know movies like to make it seem simple but when your life is in danger or you have some other type of stress going on you don't think as clearly as you would while in a shooting range or while playing a FPS. Movies make a lot of things that are hard look easy. Fear causes panic and panic causes you to miss. You have a better chance of hitting a target aiming center mass than aiming at their leg.

While I would prefer to wait until the investigation is over to see what really happened, the whole Ferguson incident has taught us that not everything is as it seems. The initial reports were that some racist police officer shot an innocent teen in cold blood and that report was the main cause of riots all over the area. Further investigation bought that story into question and later revealed that the "innocent teen" had robbed a store prior to the shooting and may have possibly charged at the officer when he was shot.

To put it simply, this is the cell phone age. People make it a point to record police officers for the sole purpose of uploading videos of them doing questionable actions onto Youtube and other video sites. No matter how racist some officer is, he isn't going to shoot some random black guy for shits and giggles knowing that a video of him shooting that guy may be used against him in a future murder trial or cause him or his family to be the target of vigilante violence.

To people saying that him getting shot might have been justified and the whole center mass thing...were you guys also taught to empty the clip on somebody as well? I can't imagine a single center mass shot not downing someone, maybe even 2...but 6? What's with the constant overkill? You can't tell me that 6 shots is a way to stop a threat...6 shots is to make sure he's dead...I mean, if he had a gun, he could still shoot while downed, but what would he do with the sword? (I'm not even talking about him being shot in the back since he could have been shot by one officer while charging at another)

True, noone in europe or norway runs around shooting (psssst, Brevik, where the cops sat on the beach waiting for more cops to arrive while a psychopathic mass murderer ran around in his own personal "COD" and killed kids" or pssst ----- some insane asylum seeker went ballistic on a bus and killed a few with a knife or pssst more recently in denmark a sick guy went into a court and killed one and critical injuried another with a saw-off rifle... So no no one shoots anyone in europe)

So i dont know about you but i would much rather want cops like in america that isn't afraid to do what it takes when a seemingly insane person runs around with a very real but blunt Katana dressed like a ninja.

I can promise you 100% that no you cannot go into any city or place swinging a real katana and then refuse to stop when the cops come and not be shot. well perhaps in sweden and norway, they have a more relaxed police force up there.

Not to mention that most european countries aren´t allowed to use tasers because its to inhuman (but its not inhuman to use guns)

It was a vanity sword, he was shot 6 times in the back at 100 yards, the police lied about it and were given a week to think up a "better" story, which of course contradicts witness testimonies.

Semantics aside, I think the race card applies here.

If it wasn't for events in the United States most of you would have nothing to post about. This thread was started by another non american. I think it is time we heard about how great things are in some of your countries.

@Jacanuk: how many times has that happend anywhere else in US. That has happened everywhere mate. How about the guy that ran over people and just stabbed people not too long ago? Or the military base in the US, it was attacked twice... We don't have any incidents were unarmed people are shot nor do we have a lot of people killing each other

He should have been stopped and prosecuted: it just isn't acceptable to carry around a replica weapon of any type in modern society. However, would it really be that difficult to disarm an individual carrying a melee medievil weapon when you outnumber him and have access to modern firearm's? your police force is clearly severely undisciplined.

@-paranorman-: Because the police don't have to shoot unarmed people, this could have gone peaceful. Hell he could have just gone to jaill for being an idiot...

you don't know europe then, they don't go shooting like that. A cop that fires a gun here has a lot of explaining to do

Of course if you talk about the uk that's another matter, they tend to be more strict than the rest of europe.

They're not really a part of europe like the rest as well, they don't even use the euro.

Norway is one of the few countries were guns aren't illegal.

We have gun related incidents in europe of course, but a hell of a lot less than in the usa. For the following reasons.

1. socialism: people get money and housing here when they can't/don't work so they don't need to steal to have some luxury.

2. Healthcare: If you're sick and you have a low income, they help you, free of charge.

3. gun control: guns are illegal.

4. A lot more is allowed and jail sentences are not as severe.

@evildead6789: Yup, that pretty much summed it up

So, the police initially claim the young man lunged at them with the sword, shot him dead. That claim is soon contradicted when they show he's shot in back while fleeing police. It's hard for me to imagine why this will likely take so long to investigate. If cops showed up at the scene of a crime, a civilian says he shot someone coming at him with a weapon, but multiple witnesses on the scene say the slain man was fleeing when he was shot, and cops see the shots are to the back, they'd slap the cuffs on the shooter and he'd be on his way to a trial in no time. Here, the cops will likely get months or over a year of paid vacation while this gets "investigate", which means internal investigators and prosecutors sit on their hands waiting for public attention to die down before rendering a predetermined decision of no wrongdoing. This is appalling.

The Young Turks has a video on this, they bring up an interesting point in the video that the police haven't even been interviewed about what happened. This is so reminiscent of the Michael Brown shooting, in that incident it's been weeks and the police haven't given an actual account of what happened, there is no report of what happened. And in the Utah case these officers can sit back and see how the story develops on this incident to shape their story around it and corroborate their stories. These Utah officers can just wait and sit back and corroborate their stories. I get it though, cops are people too, they have rights like the right to not self incriminate. However, I don't think officers should be afforded such freedoms and still keep their jobs when it comes to incidents performed on duty. Investigators here are just as every bit as culpable for letting this slide as well.

I think it'd set an amazing precedent if federal prospectors take up this case (or another similar case) that they don't just go after the officers involved but also everybody culpable in sweeping this under the rug and stonewalling any judicial process. If a civilian were to murder someone and ask someone else to hide evidence of the crime that other person would share responsibility in the perpetration of that crime. It should be no different for officers. It would amaze me if federal prosecutors went after not just the police involved in the homicide, but the investigators that helped in suppressing an investigation, as well as police chiefs who participate in allowing their officers to not give timely accounts of incidences, bullshit prosecutor discretion not to pursue such cases... I think it'd cause a shit storm and really make them make proper and transparent investigations like they should be doing from the get-go.

Police, like soldiers, are trained to aim for center mass (the chest). Although I do agree this was overkill. Why not taze the guy? Or use rubber bullets instead of real ones? I can understand lethal force if he had a gun, but the dude had a blunt katana. Unless he was within stabbing range of the cops, I don't think six shots is justified. And even if he was within stabbing range, six shots is still pretty overkill. When police use lethal force, why do they always empty their mags into the guy?

@lamprey263: Ana:"how can you have such a detailed account if you haven't interviewed the cops yet"

not to mention the account changed drastically from the first one.

lol

No amount of force is excessive when it comes to dealing with cosplayers.

Why do the departments always stand behind these cops? It's never, "they made a mistake and we don't support there actions." The reason some people associate all cops with this stuff is because the department always jumps out in full support like, "nope, they did their job. Execution is the totally appropriate response to jaywalking, selling loose cigarettes, and cosplaying in public."

This story is really sad...

And I am disgusted at the users who are trying to justify this.

Utah has an open carry law too, so even if it was a real katana, then him simply having it is not grounds to be executed.

That is incorrect. Guns are very much illegal in Norway, what is legal is either joining a shooting range and getting a permit that allows for the use on that and other gun-ranges or if your a hunter, the only country in scandinavia which a gun-culture that be describe as American is Finland.

Also most countries in europe has a gun carrying police force and no the difference from America to europe in terms of what happens after a shooting is actually not that different, if a police officer in most european countries except UK shoots someone, they will be followed by a investigation into the shooting and it happens more than you think.

As to your list well nr.1 seems to be more a opinion then based on facts, nr.2 is close and some of the reason, 3 is a lot of the reason, 4. well jail is jail.

nothing is more of a threat to a man with a gun than a guy 300 feet away with a knife.

I assume you are from europe, so you need to read more or you just dont know your own region.

And yes UK has one of the rare policeforces where a majority is not carying guns. but even they had to open fire 18 times in 2012 and who doesn't know about the Mark Duggan case

So sorry but try again.

Im not sure where your hate for cops and america comes from but no that doesnt sum anything up.

Also before you start again with your campaign against the police, you should know that there in 2012 only were 410 deaths directly from altercations with the cops, So again its not like the american cops run around shooting black people on the spot or even white people.

i am not against cops, i am against people killing other people and getting away with it. 410 deaths is still 410 deaths too much