Death by cop. Good shoot?

I say... Yes it was. We had a similar case out here in El Cajon a few years back. In that case it was a 20 something African immigrant with a mental illness who did something very similar. In this case it was a 20 something trans female activist.

Both cases are sad, but, in this case the mother is wrong as more really wasn't called for. Her mentally ill early 20 something trans daughter had at least a knife (911 calls reported a knife and a gun) but when you brandish a knife in front of an officer and refuse to drop it while advancing menicingly then it is a good shoot. Still, it was obviously suicide by cop because she kept shouting "shoot me!"

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41302571

I guess what I am saying is cops shouldn't be expected to do extraordinary things because that is unrealistic. They should be expected to do their best to control and defuse a situation while exposing themselves to as little risk as possible.

In cases like this the families always claim more should have been done and always ignore that their family member had threatened to kill an officer while holding a deadly weapon and refusing multiple lawful orders to put the weapon down. Once they do that and start advancing towards the officer then, yes, the officer has the right to defend themselves because they want to go home to their own families at the end of the night.

Checked article.

White person was shot.

No one cares. (except the family and friends of the deceased)

Arrrrrrgh you beat me to it! But you aren't wrong. I don't see a lot of churches & clergy warning of potential violence if "justice isn't served" over this case.
Several years of college and the guy still isn't smart enough to know not to bring a knife to a gunfight? Knife Dropping 101 should be mandatory!

As soon as the caller says they saw a gun, the cops go in ready to shoot back. We had a case nearby many years ago of some teens hanging out in a parking lot at 2AM. A local called the cops and said they saw a gun, just to get the cops to come quickly and disperse the kids so the guy could get some sleep. Cops showed up hot. One kid ran away, cop yelled stop, kid spun around to look. Bang, dead. Al Sharpton showed up and started a riot and everything.

Conflict deescalation needs to be part of US cop training right fucking now. If UK cops can manage a night on patrol without breaking the skulls of the gobby little twats we get around here, talking down or using nonlethal tactics on a kid who's clearly only holding a knife because they WANT YOU TO SHOOT THEM (in which case, stabbing you is counterproductive) should be fucking easy mode.

So they shot someone who was very clearly going through some mental issues because s/he was carrying basically a Swiss army knife?

Why the hell would campus police automatically resort to firearms rather than less lethal methods? If they honestly feared for their lives over a multi tool, a tazer or pepper spray could have just as effectively stopped this student. Or hell, a single cop could have restrained this student and put them in handcuffs.

Afear'd for their very lives, they was, mi'lud! For she mighta been on PCP or summat. Them evil drugs, they can turn a transgendered teen into a veritable engine o' destruction, they can.

There was that 911 call which reportedly said he/she/it (now there are claims he didn't consider himself any gender) had both a gun and a knife and that was the information the officer was working with. He didn't know if that gun could pop out at any second so the moment he/she/it advanced towards the officer in a menacing fashion it became a good shooting.

The rest of you are just second guessing and monday morning quarterbacking.

yes it would be great to call a mental health expert in a crisis like this. So what is their "response time?" In other words is there an after hours/weekends psychiatrist at the ready to respond? Oh and BTW are they willing to engage an unstable person who is possibly armed with a deadly weapon? It would be a good idea actually, and maybe some places have such a program, but I'm thinking most places don't. Sorry but I'm not pointing a finger at anybody here - it's a tragedy, full stop. A mentally disturbed person who is conveying a threat who is assumed armed will not respond to police orders to surrender. The cops are not mind readers or psychic, so they don't know what weapon they may have or their capabilities.

So a 911 tip is sufficient to establish that a person has a gun? The cops didn't see a gun, all they saw was essentially a Swiss army knife.

Similarly, if someone called 911 on you claiming you had a gun, the cops would be justified in shooting you if you tried to approach them with a vegetable peeler?

Forgive me for holding cops to a higher standard than you apparently do.

Looks like suicide by cop, but the cop should never have shot the guy.

That was said already in the OP.

So the cops could determine that the weapon in the suspects hand was just a multi-tool in the closed position? If they were that close (let me ballpark that at seven meters or about 20 feet) then that is actually on the edge of being too close to react if the suspect did indeed have a deadly weapon such as a small framed pistol or an edged weapon. I'm not nit-picking, I'm just laying out the reality of potentially dangerous people at "spitting distance" range and the micro-seconds involved that can separate life from death.

Georgia Tech shooting: Victim called police to scene of fatal encounter

A Georgia Tech student who was fatally shot by police made the 911 call that led to the deadly encounter, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Monday.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/18/us/georgia-tech-student-killed/index.html

A lot of Monday morning quarterbacking by people who have watched way too much T.V.

The cop has no idea what state of mind this guy was in. He's got something in his hand and he's advancing despite being told repeatedly to stop.The cop had no choice. End of story

Yup.

Too many American cops are little more than cowardly babies with guns.

not trans, intersex (and presented non-binary so in the broadest definition maybe trans but being intersex complicates that some)

and no, it's not a good shooting. The could have tazed Scout quite easily. The had every reason to assume "suicide by cop" and gave them what they ask for. It's gun-culture bullshit.

but they were shouting "drop the knife" so they clearly had a conception of what it was (Scout might have told them "dangerous person with a knife" in the 911?)

In any case, in the video it's clear there was massive opportunity to taze. They didn't need to let this person get any closer to make that call.

"it" is not the appropriate reference for anyone, including non-binary and intersex people

No, it does not establish they have a gun. As I clearly said that is tge info they had to work with going into the situation so of course they are going to be extra cautious and shoot if in question. That is exactly what seems to have haplened as I have repeatedly said.

"Georgia Tech's campus police do not carry Tasers, but are equipped with pepper spray."

Right in the original article.

OC is not effective against someone who is armed. I'm sorry. It's not. The small canisters officers carry on their persons during normal business have a maximum range of about double your arm's length. Actual effective range is about three feet. OC also isn't instantaneous like a Tazer. It often takes 30-45 seconds to really start working if you score a good hit on their face. If you hit their clothes, it's likely to not have any debilitating effects at all. OC is designed to aid in subduing an unarmed combative person. No where in any use of force training is it ever advised for use against an armed assailant unless there is simply no other choice.

Also, to be completely honest, something the manufacturer of Tazers don't like to talk about is that their effectiveness is drastically reduced in cold weather. Heavy clothing often defeats the barbs. Do you want to go out to a protest and not worry about getting tazed? Wear a Carhartt insulated coat and overalls. You're pretty much impervious. Now, I don't think that's going to be an issue in this incident, but don't think Tazers are some magic cure all.

As for this incident, it sucks all the way around. More and better deescalation training is one of the most important things every law enforcement officer needs today. However, I'm just going to be honest and say that I wasn't inclined to take many chances with an armed person back when I was working. The Tuller Drill, or the "Rule of 21 Feet" is not gospel, but it is a good rule of thumb. However, there are a lot of misunderstandings surrounding it.

Obviously this won't work in all situations, but US police needs to learn how to do this:

I care.

I support the Black Lives Matter movement, but I think one of the mistakes they make is focusing too much on the race of the victim. Police departments like to obfuscate exactly how many people they kill each year so no real meaningful statistics exist outside of the tabs the media keeps, but the obvious truth is that while it is true that if you are black, your encounter with police is more likely to be deadly, but just due to the sheer number of whites who encounter police, the cops kill mostly white people. BLM should be focusing on the broader topic of Police reform.

This person did not have to die.

What part of " he had a weapon and was moving towards the cops" do you not understand? Or are you one of those idiots who thinks a cop should risk his life by trying to take down a knife wielder with his bare hands because you see it all the time in the movies?

I think most reasonable people want the government agents with the authority to take lives to be certain when they shoot and kill people, not have questions. If you're unsure you shouldn't be fucking firing your gun at anyone.