So wait. No officer challenged the subject to drop the [suspected] weapon while they called in a K9 unit, a mental health evaluation team and a helicopter? And how does a water nozzle make noises like a handgun? What noises does a handgun make, exactly? If you want to know what noises a couple of citizens make when they hear that a man sitting on his back porch with a water nozzle was shot by police with two rounds from a shotgun and six rounds from a handgun, without any warning, go to 5:21.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. This is really sad. I can’t imagine how angry and upset this man’s family must be.
    I think all the blame rests on the police in this situation. First of all a water nozzle doesn’t look anything like a revolver. And by gun sounds do they mean gunshots? And it seems crazy how they never tried telling him to put the object down.

  2. This pretty much says everything that you need to know about the cops in that situation. If you have a gun, you are a target. The base assumption is that if you have a gun, you are, by definition, a criminal. It makes you feel real safe, doesn’t it?

  3. In the last few months, cops have shot and killed men “brandishing” a comb, a pda, a cell phone, a “water nozzle” (whatever that is) and shot at a store owner who was pointing his finger in the direction that a robber was fleeing. Another cop “accidentally” shot a man because the officer couldn’t tell the difference between his flashlight and his trigger, and yet another shot and killed a man because the officer couldn’t tell the difference between his gun and his taser. I’m beginning to think that we need to be more frightened of the cops than the crooks.

  4. I want to issue a special thanks to the neighbor for his super accurate description of the “weapon” as a “tiny six-shooter”. When asked if it was a revolver, was it a 9mm or a .45, he answered yes, but he didn’t know his guns too well. Apparently, he doesn’t know much about water nozzles either.

    I guess its part of the anti-gun hysteria in California. If it looks like a gun, call the cops. Anyone with a gun is a criminal and about to murder everyone in the county. Don’t spend one extra second making sure it is a gun before you set a dangerous machine in motion. Don’t factor in your own lack of knowledge and your bias against guns. Just escalate it. Why didn’t he say “this may be nothing, but there’s a guy that I don’t know sitting outside with something that may be a gun. I really cant tell though so it may be nothing”. This guy who admitted to not knowing guns knew enough to actually described the type of gun, and possibly the caliber.

    I am not defending the cops, but I wasn’t there. The noises they heard could have been from anywhere. The adrenaline was pumping and they heard something that may have sounded like it came from a gun. If he did point the nozzle at him, what should they have done? Wait till one of them was dead before returning fire?

    Almost always several things that have to go wrong before the system breaks down like this. #1, inaccurate reporting to police. #2, assumptions by the police that the info they had was accurate. #3, lets not forget our drunk guy waving a pistol shaped item at cops.

    Mistakes were made by all parties involved, so to blame this entirely on the police is just wrong.

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