Grocery store hostage... amazing how quickly it can happen

[JLawson]

This is video of a 2 year old being taken hostage in a Walmart... man moves knife to child's throat and is shot by officer:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/crime/2013/06/29/pkg-fatal-hostage-standoff-surveillance.kfor.html?hpt=hp_c4

If I understand correctly, the man hands his phone to the mother and demands that she make a phone call.  Picture it... child in one hand and phone in the other - knife has not been drawn yet.  Is this the time to act?  Is this the time for a non-lethal response - Mace, a stun gun, or taser?  Could she just run up and bear hug the guy pinning his arms and then hope that someone jumps in to help?

If, as the mother, you could overcome the initial shock of the attack, what would you have done?

[fightingquaker13]

The guy was twice her size and had her kid. She did the right thing here and called the cops. The video shows they did right too. They tried to talk him down. When it escalated, they took him down with one shot. Those guys were level headed and well trained, and frankly, I think it was what the guy wanted. He was nuts and seemed to want to check out. This wasn't a foiled kidnapping, he was asking for this and got it.

[Solus]

I think you are correct, FQ...in this case....

Had he been intent on grabbing a kid,  he would have been out the door and away, with the kid for whatever purpose he had planned.  Once he was gone, it would be likely the kid would be gone too.

When the kid was grabbed, mom should have become Momma Bear and tore into him, kicking, scratching, biting and screaming.  Any decent person in the store would have come to her aid.

Cooper said something about an overwhelmingly violent response should be given to those who offer violence.

[JLawson]

I agree Solus.  The mother didn't do anything wrong... but I think that an opportunity was missed to take advantage of the kidnapper's position.  His hands were full holding the child and the phone.  That's an opportunity to move in and attack with whatever you have - hands, feet, teeth, keys, kubaton - anything to make him let go of the child without exposing her to serious injury.  If nothing else, I hope this causes moms (and dads) to think about the dangers that exist in places they may have considered safe.

[Solus]

Oh, I agree...she did nothing wrong....and in this case, by the time she realized how large the offense was and might become, it looked like it had also become obvious that the guy wasn't going anywhere.

But, she, and everyone, needs to go from White or Yellow instantly to Red.  And I know it's hard to be in anything but White when you are comparing prices on canned goods.

If the guy had bolted with the kid and the kid was lost forever, I can't imagine what mom would go through thinking she just stood by and watched, even though she was not over the shock yet.

As an aside on this event, I've stated before that I think that a motivation for some mass killings might be a suicide wish.... The coward doesn't have the courage to just off himself but needs to do something so horrendous that it is impossible to ever return to their life before....no way out but dying.

I do think this was this fellows motive...and to his credit, he did not harm the child or anyone except perhaps the cop who had to pull the trigger...and the cop had to do it.   There might have been the likelihood that the guy wasn't gonna go violent and could have been "talked" down, but that can never be a certainty and surely not close enough to risk the kids life.

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