A Troubled Man and 20 Police Bullets in Brooklyn

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

and yet another brutal police killing sparking questions in NYC

not more than a year after another shooting claimed the life of a man the day before he was to be married.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/ny...4shooting.html

Assuming the story's events are even mostly accurate, this seems like the antithesis of brutality - the officers made every attempt I could imagine to settle the situation, calling in tactical units and a negotiator. If the kid talked about having a gun and acted like he had something under his shirt, what else should the officers do here?

Note that the overwhelming majority of wounds were to the victim's legs, as well.

I'm not sure we can hold police to some standard that says "if you think he has a gun, fire one shot, wait, maybe fire another" - six shots as the most seems like what I would have done, too.

This is as unfortunate as life can be - it really is. It's unfortunate the kid didn't get the treatment he needed and the care he deserved from the medical community. This has all the hallmarks of "suicide by cop", though, doesn't it? The police seemed to work pretty hard to not give in to his wish to die, if the article's timeline is correct . . .