Remember when Zimmerman saved that family?

http://reason.com/blog/2013/07/22/george…

"Neighborhood people saying he was mentally challenged."
-MSNBC's Chris Hayes
https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/5…

:(

What choice did they have? He used an overhand grip.

Until further notice, any news out of St. Louis will be described as "near Ferguson".

@1 eat shit and die

Wait. Did they at least get out of their car to shoot him? Talk about lazy police work.

@1 definitely eat shit and die! Jbitdmfotp

I'd love to see "shot in the leg" re-enter the lexicon of police procedure when dealing with knife-wielding suspects.

@9: Well, or "rolled up the windows of the squad car in which we sat."

what about these net-guns I keep hearing about?

bam! you're stuck in a net - you ain't stabbin' nobody now, no how, ne'er-do-well!

@9 I'd like to see them try using all those non-lethal weapons they carry, appropriately. The mace. The stun-guns (the one that fire electrodes on a cable). Even night-sticks. Any of those should have disarmed that man without bullet holes letting all the vital stuff out of vital organs.

Nerf Rifles at the ready!

@9

Police train to shoot center mass because it is the largest target, this is to prevent stray bullets hitting unintended targets and often causes the quickest stop to the threat. Many people have taken gunshot wounds to the extremities and continued to fight. You should also keep in mind that the leg contains both the femoral artery and femur, damaging both of which often causes rapid blood loss and death.

Though in this case it is possible that a less than lethal option may have been wanted. However I do not know because I was not there.

@9: Have you ever fired a gun? It isn't like Call of Duty where it is easy to shoot a moving target accurately. Shooting in the leg is a Hollywood invention. Warning shots are a mostly Hollywood invention. If you have come to the determination that lethal force is authorized, then you shoot to kill, not maim. If you ever shoot someone to maim then you have determined that lethal force was not authorized, but you still used it (shooting in the leg still has a high probability of lethality). It means that you determined that you or others were not facing an imminent risk of bodily injury or death.

The main questions we need to ask here are whether a Taser could have been used (based on the distance, I'm guessing not), and whether the officers had mental health intervention training.

@15 -- I read somewhere else that City of Saint Louis PD Officers are not equipped with tasers. Obviously that would rule out their use in this circumstance.

@15, yes, it would be appropriate to ask if a non-lethal method might have been better to take the guy down, instead of killing him. You could deflect a knife with a cop's stick, which I believe they still carry. But obviously you and others just want to show off your gun knowledge.

http://wildlifecapture.com/large-animal-…

BAM. any species, ppl.

@17: And apparently you believe the bullshit you see on TV and in movies about leg shots. They are fake. Nobody would ever consider doing that. It is idiotic. Only someone who has no knowledge of guns would even consider it. So if this is showing off gun knowledge, so be it. To me it is just showing off how not to use Magnum, P.I. as a basis to influence police policy.

@17: Oh, and I also suggest you don't use the movie Speed for advice on hostage situations ("shoot the hostage").

Right, white people salivating over their guns must be indulged, but a mentally ill man with a knife could not be detained alive by TWO cops. Any idiot can shoot someone saying, "shoot me." There are protocols for when deadly force is permissible, and I don't see any discussion of whether those protocols were followed. Does human life mean so little that we tolerate (or in some cases, applaud) those itching to commit murder who try to get off on a technicality?

@21: This looks like a case of suicide by cop. It's a crappy situation for the police to be in - if the guy really wants to be killed, he will keep trying to provoke a lethal response and that can and does place the officers at real risk of harm. It isn't fair to say the officers in this case were "itching to commit murder." In many of these cases the officers end up quite traumatized. It is like being a subway or train driver when someone commits suicide by jumping on the tracks in front of them, before they can stop.

Non-lethal countermeasures may not be sufficient to stop someone really bent on getting killed. What is really needed is to contain and isolate the suicidal person, reducing or removing the risk that they will hurt someone else. Then bring in a trained mental health professional to try to talk them down. The issue with that is how the police can make a quick determination, while being threatened, of whether they are dealing with someone who is suicidal or homicidal.

It is easy after the fact, with access to all the information, to say that the shooting victim was mentally ill and needed treatment, not a bullet. The police on the scene don't have access to medical or mental health records; all they know is there is a guy with a knife running at them, or someone else.

View video of the whole thing here.

Kajieme Powell Shooting Captured Cell Phone Camer…: http://youtu.be/m6UOMd_YJXs