Here in Toronto it's front page news. I'm not a popo, so I'm not sure what protocol is in these circumstances, but there is a ton wrong with the whole situation. The kid asks everyone to get off the bus without harm to anyone, so really was not a threat to the riders or driver despite having the knife. The officers are far enough from the suspect to not be threatened by the knife, and with the lights on in the bus can presumably see quite clearly what he has in his hands, in addition to being told what he has from the passengers. Why the threatening demeanor in their voices demanding he drop the weapon. They could have easily seen he was no threat to anybody at that point, laid off with their weapons drawn, then waited for a negotiator to come on site to deal with the guy, who was potentially mentally unstable and possibly a suicide threat. If force needed to be administered, why not use a taser before instead of after the shots were fired? The guy would drop and you would still be able to arrest him without using lethal force. The one or two cops involved with the shots and taser acted like a bunch of meatheads. 9 shots? Icing on the cake to show they were dumb as bricks. IF this was determined that the kid had bipolar and never lunged at them, I hope the cop gets prison time. Mental issues are so misunderstood sometimes, and from the looks of it, this was poorly handled.
|