Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Man claims to have gun, is killed by the cops, turns out its a hairbrush

Jayems · 11-13-2007, 01:06 PM

So I guess I'm looking for CP's vast and varying opinions about this story.

Basically, the story goes as follows:

There is some sort of disturbance at a residence between a mother and a son. The son has a history of mental illness, and is shouting that he has a gun. The 911 operator asks if he has a gun, and she says "you heard it from his mouth."

The police arrive, and the 18-year-old comes towards the police with "a dark object tucked under his shirt." He refuses to stop, so they shoot and kill him. 20 shots are fired, the story says.

A witness at the scene says that he put his hands up before the shooting started, but at the end of the story, it says nothing of the sort.

Rev. Al Sharpton's Action Network is getting involved, so I assume the victim is African-American.

But are people really surprised? The police were probably dispatched to a man with a gun call, and the guy won't show what he's got under his shirt, won't stop...

I guess my beef is that it's being portrayed as they murdered a guy with a hairbrush, and happen to mention the fact he refused to follow orders and claimed to have a gun as subsidiary information to the story. It is certainly unfortunate that other options couldn't be used, but I think this is a situation where a tazer could have resulted in the death of an officer if he did in fact have a gun.

Is the media just sensationalizing a story because the victim is presumably black, killed by presumably white officers? Do you guys think race is the major component here?

I guess I'm just trying to see why this particular incident is receiving so much attention and other aren't.

Anyway, here is the story:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/13/ny.shooting/index.html

11-13-2007, 01:06 PM	#1
Jayems Franchise Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Calgary Exp:	Man claims to have gun, is killed by the cops, turns out it's a hairbrush So I guess I'm looking for CP's vast and varying opinions about this story. Basically, the story goes as follows: There is some sort of disturbance at a residence between a mother and a son. The son has a history of mental illness, and is shouting that he has a gun. The 911 operator asks if he has a gun, and she says "you heard it from his mouth." The police arrive, and the 18-year-old comes towards the police with "a dark object tucked under his shirt." He refuses to stop, so they shoot and kill him. 20 shots are fired, the story says. A witness at the scene says that he put his hands up before the shooting started, but at the end of the story, it says nothing of the sort. Rev. Al Sharpton's Action Network is getting involved, so I assume the victim is African-American. But are people really surprised? The police were probably dispatched to a man with a gun call, and the guy won't show what he's got under his shirt, won't stop... I guess my beef is that it's being portrayed as they murdered a guy with a hairbrush, and happen to mention the fact he refused to follow orders and claimed to have a gun as subsidiary information to the story. It is certainly unfortunate that other options couldn't be used, but I think this is a situation where a tazer could have resulted in the death of an officer if he did in fact have a gun. Is the media just sensationalizing a story because the victim is presumably black, killed by presumably white officers? Do you guys think race is the major component here? I guess I'm just trying to see why this particular incident is receiving so much attention and other aren't. Anyway, here is the story: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/13/ny.shooting/index.html Last edited by Jayems; 11-13-2007 at 02:10 PM.