Friday, November 29, 2013

Modern Police Quandries








Now here is a good example of what a police officer faces: Generally Damned if you do, Damned if you don't. 

The general response: AWW-- the police officer should not have shot him!

O K lets look at the other options--

--- Ignore the call, with the logic that "This guy is only hurting himself".  
       PENALTY-- The cops shoulda done SOMETHING!

---Respond and wait the guy out. And then he either kills himself or someone else. 
         PENALTY-- The cops shoulda done SOMETHING!

---Let the guy get close to you and reason with him. 

     PENALTY... This officer tried that 

The Incident that generated this observation: 


http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1086&ArticleID=125872&TM=42184.89
November 29, 2013


11/29/2013 6:00:00 AM
Witness account of police shooting describes an alcohol-fueled rage
Scott Orr
The Daily Courier
PRESCOTT - Witnesses to the Nov. 19 fatal shooting of Larry Clay by a police officer who said Clay charged him with two large kitchen knives told investigators that Clay was depressed and had started to "destroy" his house just before the incident, according to police reports obtained by The Daily Courier.

Clay's stepdaughter's husband, Eric Tetreault, told police that Clay, 44, suffered from depression and experienced "suicidal trips" and abused alcohol, the report said. Eric told an officer about a July incident in which Clay had become abusive with his wife's daughter Aubrey and police were called.

Eric said that Clay and Aubrey had gone to a counseling session Nov. 17, but that it had gone badly, the report said.

He told officers that Clay's wife, Melissa, went out of town on business Nov. 18.

On Nov. 19, the day of the shooting, while Melissa was still gone, Eric said, Clay told him that "all he wanted to do was leave," which Eric took to mean that he wanted to leave his wife. Eric said he felt Clay was drunk at the time.

When Eric left, he said, Clay texted him with a message that "he would be 'off to new horizons,' and quitting work," the report said.

Later Tuesday, Melissa called Eric and told him to get over to Clay's house because they'd been on the phone and he was "destroying" the house.

Eric found Clay had run a garden hose in through a window and saw there had been some sort of fire inside that Clay had put out. He also was tearing up Aubrey's old room with a shovel, the report said.

Clay came out to the garage to talk with Eric, but when he began to insult Ashley, Eric's wife, the situation escalated, and Clay began to poke him in the chest and say, "What are you going to do? Do it now," the report said. Eric remarked he'd never seen Clay act like that before.

Eric walked away, and Clay began to stab himself, the report said. At that point, Eric called 911. Clay came out to the front porch with two eight-inch kitchen knives and said he'd kill himself if police were called.

When Clay took off his shirt, he had a bleeding wound, Eric said. There was a "good amount of blood coming from it," he told police.

Officer Jared Willis, the first to arrive, parked down the street and walked up to the house, Eric told investigators, and when Clay saw Willis he "became frantic and began swinging his arms around with a knife in each hand," the report said.

"'I am prepared to die,'" Eric said Clay told Willis.

Willis told Clay to drop the knives, but instead, Clay advanced on him, walking steadily, not running, until he was about 10 feet away, and Willis shot him three times.

Witness James Knightly told another officer that he watched the situation develop and believed that being killed by Willis "was what Larry planned," another report said.

Willis has been on a 40-work-hour administrative leave, routine after a shooting, and will return to duty Saturday, Prescott Police spokesman Lt. Ken Morley said.

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