Quote:
Originally Posted by firebug
My experience with the Police in this matter differs from yours.
10 years ago a tenant in a building I was supervising (The York Hotel downtown) pulled a machete on me and drove the blade into the floor by my feet before slamming and locking his door. A witness to the event called the Police and by the time I reached the main floor I saw 4 members of the TAC team run into our building. They apprehended the perpetrator and an Officer interviewed me and took my statement.
I tried to play it off as no big deal and he interrupted me and explained that as an officer they are trained that a knife has a 'kill zone' of about 15 feet and that they are trained to shoot anyone threatening them with a blade who is within that distance.
Certainly if the guy has a knife 100 yards away they can't nail him Dirty Harry style, but close enough... fire away.
~firebug
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Again though, that's a different situation. For one him slamming the machete into the floor by your feet(with a witness to boot) could be seen as attacking too. Also this is a different situation because you didn't attack him back, so the case really has no bearing on the conversation as there was no self defence involved.
Also like I said above(but am not sure of), I do believe police officers because of the nature of their job have a different set of " rules " they follow. An officer is trained and experienced how to handle such a situation, as well as the fact their JOB is enforcing the law.
It gets a lot more shaded if some random person shoots another random person for pulling a knife on them. Also if that quote of what the officer said is accurate, he said nothing about shooting said victim dead, just shooting them. He easily could have meant shoot them in the leg/arm to stop them. He didn't really say in the least you can shoot AND KILL someone with a knife. The real issue here is KILLING someone in self defence, not hurting them in self defence. The officer I spoke with was strictly speaking in the case you shot AND KILLED said person.