suicide by cop...

uscitizen

uscitizen

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Army Reservist Shot, Killed in Standoff
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LEONARDTOWN, Md. (AP) -- An Army Reservist despondent about being sent to Iraq was killed by police during a 14-hour standoff that began Christmas night when family members told authorities he was armed and threatening to kill himself.

James Emerick Dean, 28, had barricaded himself inside his father's house with several weapons Monday night, family members told police. He later told officers he would shoot anyone who entered the house. His father was not home at the time.

Around noon Tuesday, while police were preparing to use tear gas to force Dean out of the home, Dean came to the front door and pointed his weapon at an officer, St. Mary's County Sheriff Tim Cameron said. Another deputy shot Dean once, killing him.

Dean had already served 18 months in Afghanistan and was despondent after learning recently that he would be deployed to Iraq, family members told police.

During the standoff, Dean fired several shots at police, including one that struck a car where a deputy sat. The officer was not injured.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RESERVIST_SHOOTING?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
 
Well...

uscitizen said:
Now I ask you is this the way we should handle potential suicides ?
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according to the article the suspect had fired several shots at the deputies and one round hit a police vehicle...then he pointed the weapon at a deputy...so what would you had done given the circumstances?
 
Battleborne said:
according to the article the suspect had fired several shots at the deputies and one round hit a police vehicle...then he pointed the weapon at a deputy...so what would you had done given the circumstances?
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Taser. There are non-lethal alternatives.
 
Battle, but to put the suicidal person in that position in the first place is my point. Guess you missed that.

Yep Taser, talkers, etc...Darn the guy wants to die, why oblige him and be an accompolice to a crime ?
 
Well...

Damocles said:
Taser. There are non-lethal alternatives.
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I was not there so I will not second guess the deputies response...I have been in that situation before as to shoot or not to shoot..you really have to be in the position before one can make a gross statement as to why the officer shot!

tasers were not developed for a response to a potential shooting of a fire arm...so the officer followed sop!
 
uscitizen said:
Battle, but to put the suicidal person in that position in the first place is my point. Guess you missed that.

Yep Taser, talkers, etc...Darn the guy wants to die, why oblige him and be an accompolice to a crime ?
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1) I did not miss your political point about the Iraq war...this has nothing to do with a officers response to a potential shooting of another deputy!

2) It is a crime for a officer to protect another officer????Like I said I was not there and did not feel the threat...!
 
the underlying "crime" is certainly the war in Iraq...but I fail to see what the police officers did that was inappropriate, especially after the soldier fired at them.
 
This is not about the war. this is about suicide by cop and are the police depts handling these types of situations like they should.
 
I dunno...I would think that by the time he had barricaded himself and fired on police officers, that the options were pretty limited
 
Battleborne said:
I was not there so I will not second guess the deputies response...I have been in that situation before as to shoot or not to shoot..you really have to be in the position before one can make a gross statement as to why the officer shot!

tasers were not developed for a response to a potential shooting of a fire arm...so the officer followed sop!
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They were, however, developed for use in such a situation. Had the officers responded to a suicide (they did) and were properly prepared, lethal force is pretty much anathema in the stopping of such a crime.

Second guessing preparation is something we do all the time on the fire department. That way we stop making the same mistakes over and over and killing people in the process.

Don't be all, "you've never had such an experience" with me until you have walked a few miles in my shoes.
 
Moot point...

Damocles said:
They were, however, developed for use in such a situation. Had the officers responded to a suicide (they did) and were properly prepared, lethal force is pretty much anathema in the stopping of such a crime.

Second guessing preparation is something we do all the time on the fire department. That way we stop making the same mistakes over and over and killing people in the process.

Don't be all, "you've never had such an experience" with me until you have walked a few miles in my shoes.
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Once a suspect fires on police and points a weapon in the direction of a officer SOP mandates self protection of said officers in the line of fire...this is a sad case...however the action taken was SOP as taught in the Academies...as for the taser comment...not true the effective range is close quarters to maybe 10'...If the suspect is even brandishing a knife lethal force is dictated...a person can cover a 10' distance in about 1 second...and if y'all want to say poor soldier...he wanted to committ suicide rather than go into a combat zone again...sorry is taking your own life any less painful or dangerous than being in a combat zone...well my opinion is hell no...and who knows how far he was willing to go to accomplish this suicide...he made the overt attempt by discharging the firearm hitting a patrol vehicle and aiming at a deputy...so he accomplished his goal with no loss of life to the responding officers! In a perfect world where human beings could read anothers mind I would agree with you...however under the circumstances all action taken was appropriate.
 
Battleborne said:
Once a suspect fires on police and points a weapon in the direction of a officer SOP mandates self protection of said officers in the line of fire...this is a sad case...however the action taken was SOP as taught in the Academies...as for the taser comment...not true the effective range is close quarters to maybe 10'...If the suspect is even brandishing a knife lethal force is dictated...a person can cover a 10' distance in about 1 second...and if y'all want to say poor soldier...he wanted to committ suicide rather than go into a combat zone again...sorry is taking your own life any less painful or dangerous than being in a combat zone...well my opinion is hell no...and who knows how far he was willing to go to accomplish this suicide...he made the overt attempt by discharging the firearm hitting a patrol vehicle and aiming at a deputy...so he accomplished his goal with no loss of life to the responding officers! In a perfect world where human beings could read anothers mind I would agree with you...however under the circumstances all action taken was appropriate.
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Once again....

An after the fact analysis of an action is important for improvement. Truly looking at whether they needed to surround the house with armed officers rather than working at the problem in a different direction and basically ending up helping him to suicide, we look at the problem and see if there was a better solution.

Nobody here has called for the cop to be put in prison, they have simply stated that there was probably a better solution to this problem. Wasting breath arguing against what nobody has stated is simply a waste of energy...
 
Pardon my input...

Damocles said:
Once again....

An after the fact analysis of an action is important for improvement. Truly looking at whether they needed to surround the house with armed officers rather than working at the problem in a different direction and basically ending up helping him to suicide, we look at the problem and see if there was a better solution.

Nobody here has called for the cop to be put in prison, they have simply stated that there was probably a better solution to this problem. Wasting breath arguing against what nobody has stated is simply a waste of energy...
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I just brought to your attention that SOP was followed... a true and proven response that is taught in all Police Acadamies...if you reread the original article over 14hrs of contact with the subject was done...There is no proff that the subject was suicidal only that his father said this was the issue...the subject never stated this as far as I can see from the article...but the article does state that the subject stated that he would shoot anyone who tried to enter the house...he also shot randomly at police vehicles outside...endangering the general public...it is a damned if you do and damned if you don't senario...what if the Sheriffs office pulled back and the subject committed suicide ...then they would be damned for lack of action...as it was, they responded using the most effective and taught action...surround,secure,and maintain contact...the subject was the one who fired on the police first...and the response was that as is required..protection of the general public...to serve and protect...it is sad that this person took this action ...why did he not just defect to Canada...rather than take a stand against the public and law enforcement...It appears as if he just wanted to punish the public rather than suicide...if this was his intent he would have just placed the weapon in his mouth and pulled the trigger!
 
naah, he just did not have the balls to blow his own brains out , had to push the cops into doing it for him.
 
maineman said:
the underlying "crime" is certainly the war in Iraq...but I fail to see what the police officers did that was inappropriate, especially after the soldier fired at them.
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Once again, I find myself in agreement with you, which was a lifesaver since I didn't want to be seconding BB. While I disagree with the comment about the war, it sounds like up until the man aiming at an officer, the cops had just 'sat there', planning on using tear gas soon. Unfortunately the prior shooting, then aiming at an officer precluded alternatives.

Perhaps I'm missing something in the story? Where did any officer get close enough to administer a taser? :confused: Would you expect officers to attempt to get that close to the man, when shots had already been fired?
 
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