[chemgear]

Originally Posted by polak

Yeah, I don't buy that the guy was a serious threat to anyone unless he had something else with him and considering that they continued to yell "drop the knife", I don't think that was the case.

The guy had a knife. A knife. You can't harm anyone with a knife unless they're within arms reach.

Interesting article actually about this below. I wonder how movies/video games/mainstream culture has (erroneously) affected our and frankly, my perception of things like this.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...ng-assailants/

A member of the public, lacking combat experience or training, would probably assume that if a police officer is facing off against a suspect with a knife, and they are separated by, say, 20 feet, that the police officer is safe. A gun beats a knife, and 20 feet is a lot of room. But common sense, in this case, is wrong. In 1983, Sgt. Dennis Tueller of the Salt Lake City, Utah, police department, designed a simulation to test how close someone armed with a knife has to be to a police officer to pose an imminent danger to that officer’s life.Tueller found that anyone armed with a knife could charge a police officer and inflict potentially fatal wounds from anywhere within seven yards — 21 feet — of the officer, before that officer could draw his or her firearm from its holster, aim it, and fire two accurate shots. (Shots that miss don’t help the officer much.) The time to cross the 21-foot distance to get within stabbing range was only 1.5 seconds. It was the rare police officer who could react quickly enough to recognize the threat and defend himself or herself in that period. Twenty one feet became, in effect, the zone of immediate danger, where officers might — but might not — be able to react quickly enough to save their lives.