Quote:
Originally Posted by metallicat
I think it’s prudent to end a threat before they can get the chance to close distance when they have a knife. Certainly they didn’t expect him to get more mad and then charge, that wouldn’t have been the goal obviously.
I’m not even going to dignify the other guy commenting here about getting back to writing speeding tickets with a response to that. If that’s where you’re at with your argument then I’ve really got nothing to gain my engaging.
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It appears that the officer shooting rubber bullets created a greater threat as it resulted in the man running towards the officers. If the guy had a gun, I’d agree with the tactic because the gun can be lethal from a distance. The knife wasn’t a huge threat from 30 feet away especially with a dozen officers having weapons trained on the man. This situation provided opportunities for other techniques to be employed.
The police chief said the officers responded to an assault and not a mental health situation which is why other options weren’t used. I don’t know how long the situation lasted but I don’t think it would take long to assess the man’s mental state especially if a mental health professional was involved.
I don’t know what info the police had on the man but if they knew he had PTSD, they should have handled it differently. If he was in a fight or flight situation, getting hit with rubber bullets looks like it escalated his fight reaction in which he reacted to his perceived threat and ran towards them. I don’t think he would have been in a state of mind to make a rational choice.