Police Shoot Man Over Stolen Donuts

Anyone surprised over this?

More at the link, but I think we all know that there's no other way this could have gone down after he stole the donuts.

Jeez, you'd think with all that's been going on in the news, the cops would kind of...I dunno, tone it down a little on the murder for at least...I dunno, a week?

He stole doughnuts and you're surprised cops shot him ? Really ?

A guy with a knife that is screaming for the cops to kill him?

I've got more than a little sympathy for the cops in that situation.

Plus, donuts.

OK.. you are brandishing a knife.. just committed a crime .. challenging police.. and the cops are wrong? Protect and serve means to keep the public safe as well. Were this guy to take a hostage or slash an innocent and the theme of this thread would be "Cops more concerned about donuts, than the safety of public"
Isolated incidents shouldn't paint the entire law enforcement community as "selective killers" and with the internet "Raw Story" as your source, do you believe it could be reported out of context or with convenient omissions?

Just asking ! - please no "Fuck you Grout you moldy old bastard, I fucked your mother last night" - type responses - Oh wait Johnny Castle is no longer allowed on the board...

I have two thoughts on this:

A. Don't ever bring a knife to a gunfight.
B. That being said, it was still a knife, and he was obviously out of his head; either off his meds or just crazy. Two officers should have been able to take care of the situation without killing him.

Cops aren't superheroes.

And they have real families.

Yes, they probably could have taken care of the situation.

But there was a real chance one of them would have been seriously or fatally injured.

I'm fully behind shooting a guy with a weapon who is threatening people's lives. Even if it is the officer's life.

If they don't have a weapon, then it is situational. There are still some cases were that is justified IMO.

The numbers on how little time it takes a guy with a knife to be able to rush you and kill you, and from what distance, are pretty surprising. I can't quote them, but Zombie has posted them before, I think.

Really? Well then "let he is without sin cast the first stone" and show us how it's done!
That's what I thought.

Did they keep the donuts?

They mysteriously dissapeared from the evidence room!

Have to agree with Demiurge and Grout, even though the donut irony can't be ignored.

Google knife wounds. People who think you can disarm someone with a knife like it's nothing are crazy and courting death. Every competent instructor who teaches anything about knifes will tell you that in a knife fight you will get cut or stab.

Add in the guy obviously has got a death wish and you would be foolish to get within arms reach of him.

And the officers didn't kill him. He died from the gunshot wounds. I know that sounds silly but they didn't shoot to kill. They shot to stop the threat. If he had lived or died it wouldn't have matter. Stopping the threat was what is important.

I've watched the video. The police car door opens at 1:24. The first shot was fired at 1:40. That's sixteen seconds. Not a lot of time to work with.

John, are you wanting to get driven off of wordforge? You're already half way there.

All you have to do is to start talking about the leather jacket technique, and you'll be home free!

I don't know which is worse, that some people think every cop is Jason Bourne, or that they think Jason Bourne is real.

NM, redundant

Too bad SpaceTurkey wasn't there with his leather jacket.

The man was not shot "over donuts." The man was shot because when he was confronted by the police, he pulled a weapon, made angry statements, and approached the cops in a threatening manner.

And not one fuck was given. Good shoot in my opinion.

If the facts are true as presented, I've got no heartburn over this. It is exceedingly unwise to use a knife to threaten someone with a gun. @tafkats, you're probably referring to the Tueller Drill or "21-foot rule." For those playing the home game, it states that, on average, a man with a knife can cover 21-feet in 1.5 seconds. This is more than the time it takes the average Police Officer to draw, aim, and fire his sidearm.

I think you meant "less than the time."

You know cops and their doughnuts.

The donuts was just the bait to get the cops to come.

Like Spiderman needs bait to come to a crime scene.....

Why is it that cops use tasers against people who give them lip and not against disturbed people who can't be talked down until they've been dosed up? This was, as far as I can tell, a perfect situation for taser use.

Police were responding to reports of a knife-wielding thief. If they closed to an unsafe distance before assessing the situation, that's their own damn fault.

^I don't know what police policy is for such things, but when confronted by someone armed and dangerous, I wouldn't risk my life to an electronic gadget with no second shot capability.

Who approached who?

I looked up knife wounds and knife attacks, at Zombie's recommendation, and yeah, I can see where it could have turned really nasty really quickly. While I wish they could have used something else, like a taser, I can see how they would fear for their lives in that kind of predicament.

DAMN! Day late and a dollar short. As soon as I read "knife" the WF Leatherman was on my mind.

Clearly, all they needed was a leather jacket

I must be missing the joke on this one. Leather jacket?