Police officer shoots dead pen-wielding amputee

[philw]

http://www.news.com.au/world/police-officer-shoots-dead-pen-wielding-amputee/story-fndir2ev-1226479631034

A US police officer has shot and killed a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair after the double amputee waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.

Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer at a Houston, Texas, group home on Saturday and was making threats while trying to stab the officer with the pen.

At the time, the officer did not know what man was waving, Silva said.

She said the man came "within inches to a foot" of the officer and did not follow instructions to calm down and remain still.

"Fearing for his partner's safety and his own safety, he discharged his weapon," Silva said.

Police did not immediately release the name of the man who was killed.

They had been called to the home after a caretaker there reported that a man in a wheelchair was causing a disturbance.

The owner of the group home, John Garcia, told the Houston Chronicle that the man had a history of mental illness and had been living at the house about 18 months.

Garcia said the man had told him he lost a leg above the knee and one arm when he was hit by a train.

"He sometimes would go off a bit, but you just ignore it," Garcia told the newspaper.

Silva identified the officer as Matthew Jacob Marin, a five-year veteran of the department.

He was immediately placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard in all shootings involving officers.

Houston police records indicate that Marin also fatally shot a suspect in 2009.

Investigators at the time said Marin came upon a man stabbing his neighbour to death at an apartment complex and opened fire when the suspect refused to drop the knife.

hmm   think they are missing some details   however i think the copper was a little quick on the trigger

[sledgemeister]

a cop couldnt knock the pen out of a one armed and one legged man with a batton or taser - hell even a mag-lite torch would work

pretty ordinary police work imho

[TAB]

um,  sop for most departments is less the 21 feet with a blade or striking weapon = shoot.  A pin, more so if its metal and shiny could be mistaken for a knife very easily.  Now add in  some one that is acting hostile...  AND BANG!    now I am not saying thats how it went down, just another view of what could have happend.  The artical is not exactly full of facts.

[tombogan03884]

um,  sop for most departments is less the 21 feet with a blade or striking weapon = shoot.  A pin, more so if its metal and shiny could be mistaken for a knife very easily.  Now add in  some one that is acting hostile...  AND BANG!    now I am not saying thats how it went down, just another view of what could have happend.  The artical is not exactly full of facts.

Dude, one arm, one leg, in a wheel chair with something shiny that could have been a knife.
How many more details do you need ?
This trigger happy cop could have gone up a couple stairs, or jammed his night stick in the chairs wheels and tazed the guy from a safe distance of 5 ft.

[sledgemeister]

Dude, one arm, one leg, in a wheel chair with something shiny that could have been a knife.
How many more details do you need ?
This trigger happy cop could have gone up a couple stairs, or jammed his night stick in the chairs wheels and tazed the guy from a safe distance of 5 ft.

am I the only one that this makes me thinks of Monty Pythons Black Knight fight?

[Sponsor]

[Ulmus]

After seeing the report on the news, (Guy is a Skitzoid {yeah, I know, SP} and was moving to attack one cop, the officer's partner shot the guy.)

I say it's a justified shot.

Registered mental paitient, something in the hand, trying to attack officer.  -BANG.

How many times have I read "shoot the mad dog" on these forums?  The cop did just that and is getting greif for it?   

Can't have it both ways.

[TAB]

The artical also says he was less then a foot away.   thats well with in deadly range of a knife.     just a fyi  it is also sop to not use a tazer or other less then leathal weapon unless you are back up by another officer with a leathal weapon drawn and ready.   

[tombogan03884]

What kind of gutless chickensh!t azzhole thinks it's ever justified to shoot a one armed one legged guy in a wheel chair ?
The trigger happy cop,Ulmas and TAB.
Takes a real bad azz to use a whole bullet on a half a person.   

[sweet1911]

If it was you or me who pulled the trigger under the same exact conditions where do you think we would be spending the rest of our life , quite frankly my wife could have handled it much better, here we have a ((highly trained police officer)) who is trained in defense skills and non-lethal force skills who has all different kinds of equipment hanging on his belt besides his pistol, just think about this put yourself in the wheelchair and use one leg and one hand now try and control and maneuver a wheelchair and at the same time have a pen in your hand and try and catch somebody , I am coming up with three different tasks but only one hand and one leg something is really missing with this picture, and what I think is wrong is what we are letting them get away with they keep giving themselves more power and somehow make everything they do justifiable, I remember quite a few years ago I believe it was in New York City the police went into a apartment building and they went up behind somebody ordered them to stop and to drop what he had in this hands, grocery shopping bags, and that person did not ((comply)) so they shot him well it turns out that he was deaf and could not hear the commands, so how powerful is that word ((comply))

[jaybet]

Why would the cop shoot a dead guy?