Police Shooting Video from SLC: You Be the Judge

We had another police shooting last week. Police responded to a report of a suspicious guy walking around looking to "shovel snow" from dry driveways. This was how it went down:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/2038778-155/slcpd-detectives-reviewing-cops-body-cam

You see what happens right before a violent fight in which the gentleman hit the police office several times with the shovel breaking the officer's leg. The officer was able to get his gun and shoot the man twice in the chest. He died later of his wounds.

I initially did not know that the police officer was so seriously hurt. When I heard that fact and that the man hit him several times with the shovel, I felt as if the shooting was at least more justified.

What do you think?

I guess I have always felt that it is a bad idea to attack a police officer. Just common sense I guess. But I understand that there are some that just explode because of repeated bad encounters with officers. It does not make the violence right, but I understand a bit more why things may happen.

Watch the video and comment.

My official position: "no comment"

This was all my facebook feed was a few weeks ago. I try to steer clear

Justified.

I say put yourself in the police officers shoes. If someone was beating the shit out of you with a shovel.

i watched without audio. guy went from seemingly calm to crazed pretty quick, not sure if the cop escalated the issue verbally but if you attack a cop you get what you get.

First, I think this could have been handled a little differently. I think law enforcement can intimidate without doing anything and they need to understand that. Now, the unfortunate issue is that there are bad people out there and as a result they treat most people that way because they never know. That being said this guy seemed a little unstable and lost his shit and the shovel became a weapon. At that point all bets are off!

Never bring a shovel to a gun fight.
Or, never start gun fight with a shovel.
Also, never hit a cop with a shovel. Or anything else. Chris Rock has other specific recommendations.

This is why I love body cameras. It really allows people to say, if you were in this officers situation, what would you do? It is completely justified. When an officers life is in danger the force continuum goes out the window. If I was in that situation I would most definitely be fearing for my life. Justifiable homicide

Yup, body camera pretty much justifies the cop shooting the guy.

All cops should wear them. Hopefully more durable ones too though. I would think you'd want technology that can at least survive a scuffle and maintain the audio.

deadheadskier said:

Yup, body camera pretty much justifies the cop shooting the guy.

All cops should wear them. Hopefully more durable ones too though. I would think you'd want technology that can at least survive a scuffle and maintain the audio.

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MSP has actually received a few to try out. They are made by a company called Wolfcom. It's actually pretty cool how they work. To activate it, all the officer has to do is push a button on their radio. The footage that these things have caught are pretty damn compelling.

^I wouldn't be surprised if gopro triesd to develop a camera for this market

I think that the shooting was justified; perhaps things could have been done differently to not escalate it to that point, but the guy attacked a police officer. It's anyone's guess, but I think that the result would have been the same.

thetrailboss said:

I think that the shooting was justified; perhaps things could have been done differently to not escalate it to that point, but the guy attacked a police officer. It's anyone's guess, but I think that the result would have been the same.

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Yes and I have no doubt this will be analyzed over and over for training purposes.