Police Kill Man who Carries Deadly Garden Shears

[Joe Guy]

This could use some editing and is a bit graphic, so you've been warned.



Anger over YouTube video of Salinas police shooting
Posted on Wednesday, May 21 at 8:35am | By Evan Sernoffsky

Police in Salinas shot and killed a suspect armed with gardening shears Tuesday, but some residents who viewed a video of the deadly run-in on the Internet say the officers went too far.

Someone called 911 around 12:15 p.m. after a man tried to break into a home and threatened to kill the resident, police said. Witnesses told officers the assailant also threatened to kill the resident’s dog and exposed his genitals to the victim, police said.

Officers who responded to the home on Elkington Avenue spotted a suspect with a large pair of gardening shears sticking out of his backpack. Police said they ordered the man to get on the ground and tried to subdue him with an electric stun gun, but it was “ineffective.”

The man then pulled the gardening shears from his backpack “in an aggressive fashion” and swung them at one of the officers, police said. That’s when officers opened fire, killing the man. His name has not been released.

Video posted Tuesday on YouTube shows the encounter and the immediate aftermath. Witnesses can be heard shouting expletives at the officers after the deadly confrontation.

“Why the f— didn’t you Taser him? You guys didn’t even try,” one woman is heard yelling.

Dozens of people voiced frustrations with police Tuesday night before the Salinas City Council, according to KSBW-TV.

Tuesday’s shooting was the third deadly officer-involved shooting this year in Salinas. On May 9, officers shot and killed a knife-wielding suspect after he broke free from officers who were trying to subdue him, police said.

Police officials urged residents to “remain calm until enough facts are known so that a conclusion as to the appropriateness of the officers’ actions can be determined.”

The officers involved in Tuesday’s shooting were placed on paid administrative leave while authorities investigate. Their names have not been released.

source

[Big RR]

Do/can police in California carry Tasers? It's not permitted in some areas.

edited to add: That being said, it's hard to tell from the video what happened here, including why the police were summoned in the first place. It's clear he was acting aggressively and refusing to submit to arrest, but I couldn't see exactly what prompted the shots (or even if they tried anything short of shooting to stop him, for all I could see they might have even tried to taze him and it had no effect). I think we have to wait for more information.

[Econoline]

Shear madness.

[Joe Guy]

Do/can police in California carry Tasers? It's not permitted in some areas.

Police can carry tasers in California but I don't know if they all do. According to the article, the officers did use a stun gun.

Shear madness.

The suspect may have threatened to prune the officers.

[Lord Jim]

I hear what clearly sounds like a taser shot being fired early in the video, when they first confront him, but before the pursuit...

But there was a lot of time between that and when the shots are fired, and part of what was going on is out of sight of the camera...

Regarding whether the shooting was justified, I'm afraid until there's more information I'm going to have to hedge my answer...

[Big RR]

Hedge--good one there

[MajGenl.Meade]

I can't believe that woman was carrying a small child into the midst of potential gunfire; then exposed it to actual gunfire; and then used the kind of language all small children should learn for their future interactions with society and the representatives of law enforcement. At a guess, the lax enforcement officers in this video held off drastic action until the shears-wielder was about to enter a high traffic area with lots of people walking around - he wouldn't stop and they felt they couldn't take the chance of him hurting civilians. Not sure why one or both couldn't get ahead of him.

It might emphasise the need for privet security.

[Lord Jim]

I can't believe that woman was carrying a small child into the midst of potential gunfire;

That struck me too...

I can't imagine running towards a situation where I can see cops with guns drawn in a hostile confrontation while holding a child in my arms... How irresponsible does a person have to be to do that?

[Gob]

It might emphasise the need for privet security.

It's a snip at the price.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Could have been worse LJ - she could have been climbing the walls

[Lord Jim]

The humor in this thread is deteriorating at a rapid clip...

[rubato]

The "suspect" was retreating throughout the encounter and not acting aggressively. Why didn't they use their very effective PL-25 batons? It seems a more appropriate reaction to a clumsy weapon like garden shears.

yrs,
rubato

[Joe Guy]

I don't know what a PL-25 baton is but one cop did use a stun gun and it didn't stop the suspect. It's hard to judge whether or not shooting the guy was necessary but from what I can see in the video, it doesn't look like the cops were in any danger.

[Lord Jim]

Well I've just watched it about a dozen times between the critical moments...

Between 1:00 and 1:06 on the video...

It does appear that the guy turned to face the officer, with the shears in his hand, and then the shots were fired...(Meade, if you post something like "where's the officer with the shears in his hands?" I'm gonna come over there and slap you... )

Then I watched it full screen, second by second...

If you move the video to 1:02 and stop it, I think you'll see the moment I'm talking about, where the guy turns to confront the cop...

At 1:03, you can see the face off between them in the far corner of the video...

Then for a split second they're out of camera view, and then at 1:04, the shots are fired...

Looking at it in this slowed down, stop-action way, gives me the impression that the claim that the officer believed he was in danger of being attacked has more credibility than I initially thought...

Presumably the folks who investigate this will do a more detailed frame by frame analysis, and look at enlarged enhanced close-ups, which should give an even clearer picture...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Your comma usage makes clear that it was the guy (and not "the officer") who had the garden implement in his hands. Besides, I'm so thrilled to see "shears" and not "shear's" I would not have criticized even a slight error.