Teen shot dead by police over stolen PS3

It is typical, but its true. The problem with american police is that they dont seem to use their brain. For example: those highway chases. Somebody doesnt want to stop and than you have police cars with sirens on racing like idiots and ramming the guy's car to stop him. The only thing you do is making the guy more scared and have him drive even faster and more dangerous. So instead of trying to controll things as much as possible they are only making it worse. Its exactly the same with this. The storm into a house without a reason (there was no need to kick in the door, no imidiate danger for anyone) with their guns pulled and the second they see something in somebody's hand they start shooting. It might as well been the wrong house with the wrong person in it and then they wouldve killed a innocent person because they like to play trigger happy cowboy. Even if the guy was guilty stealing a ps3 still isnt worse enough to pay with your life.

I totally agree. But I d also blame movies. Some people just think they live in movies
 
Particularlyl people who are suspects of armed robbery.

So lets say totally false information appears and so accidentally all of a sudden:
"Russ is a suspect of an ARMED ROBBERY!"

Then the police should act like this?:
"Kick his door and if you see him holding anything SHOOT! It may be a gun! Remember he is a SUSPECT of an ARMED ROBBERY"
 
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I'm torn on this situation. While I think the police obviously overreacted, the suspect created the entire situation in the first place by being repeatedly stupid.
 
I'm torn on this situation. While I think the police obviously overreacted, the suspect created the entire situation in the first place by being repeatedly stupid.

He was stupid, but who really knows how the end played out?

I mean the doorbell rings he is playing a videogame and doesn't want to get it. It rings again he figures fine i'll go get it and blamo! in the face
 
He was stupid, but who really knows how the end played out?

I mean the doorbell rings he is playing a videogame and doesn't want to get it. It rings again he figures fine i'll go get it and blamo! in the face

Exactly thats what I d do too. Sometimes when I am absorbed in a game or watch a very serious cutscene I dont give a damn whats going on around me because I dont want to miss important parts. If someone though is persistant and pucnhes teh door like crazy I might decide to go check what the hell is going on. I d sure be just as dead as him if I was a suspect
 
To be fair, the situation quite possibly could be like this: the police kick the door open, yell "freeze" at the man, and be shot dead in the head. And unfortunately, this is more likely to happen than some teens be shot by "over-reacting" police.
 
THe original robbery was an armed robbery.

The cops knock, nobody answers.

They bust down the door, he's standing there with something dark in his hand.

They shoot him, assuming the dark object in his hand is a gun. (Turns out to be a ps3 controller)

Mistakes happen, but to say "shoot first, ask questions later" and "typical american" is...well....typical.

Actually your information is wrong. The origonal robbery was a mugging, no fire-arms were involved. The local law-enforcement was involved because of pictures of the suspect with assault weapons which werent verified as being real or not. Keep in mind they didnt even know if this was the origonal mugger, and last time i checked holding a toy or real firearm in a picture doesnt make you guilty of anything. The campus security problably got paranoid that they'd have another school shooting, since theres been so many recently so they called in the "professionals".

However i think most people are disturbed by the fact that the police were aiming to kill, not to maim, and certainly not to ask questions. At LEAST EIGHT shots were fired, two into the dog, one into the suspects head and chest, and 4 into the wall. The suspect, meanwhile, was able to get off one shot of his PS3 trigger while attempting to answer the knock at the door. If you dont see any problem with assumption in this case, then i think thats being strange. The shooting was not justified in any way. A picture of the suspect on the internet with a weapon, fake or real, does not justify deadly force. Law enforcement are paid and trained to put their lives on the line to save others, including the suspects (because they're not guilty on assumption!), law enforcement are not suppose to act like the local execution squad.

In summation you have a suspect of a mugging shot in the head and chest, as well as his dog killed, while trying to answer the door, which was knocked on by officers attempting to serve a warrant of a search of the premises, because he was holding a game controller. The door was kicked in, the suspect was executed along with his dog and the wall behind him by officers expecting rambo. Fault and false assumption lie with the officers in this case. End of story.
 
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However i think most people are disturbed by the fact that the police were aiming to kill, not to maim, and certainly not to ask questions. At LEAST EIGHT shots were fired, two into the dog, one into the suspects head and chest, and 4 into the wall.
I can't speak to the rest of the case, but that is standard procedure.

Shooting to maim is more like shooting to miss or shooting to hit a bystander. Once the use of deadly force has been initiated, training is for the officer to shoot in a manner that is most likely to stop the suspect from being a threat.

Shooting an armed suspect's shoulder is not sufficient, so it's recommended to aim for center mass. Head shots would be more lethal, but the target is much smaller.

The number of rounds is also not surprising in a situation like this. It's possible to squeeze off a significant number of shots before one is able to fully assess the situation intellectually.

If the dog was aggressive or even seemed to be (gunshots and strangers tend to cause this), I'm not surprised it was shot as well.
 
I can't speak to the rest of the case, but that is standard procedure.

Shooting to maim is more like shooting to miss or shooting to hit a bystander. Once the use of deadly force has been initiated, training is for the officer to shoot in a manner that is most likely to stop the suspect from being a threat.

Shooting an armed suspect's shoulder is not sufficient, so it's recommended to aim for center mass. Head shots would be more lethal, but the target is much smaller.

The number of rounds is also not surprising in a situation like this. It's possible to squeeze off a significant number of shots before one is able to fully assess the situation intellectually.

If the dog was aggressive or even seemed to be (gunshots and strangers tend to cause this), I'm not surprised it was shot as well.

I think you missed the point. He wasnt armed, nor was he ever confirmed to be, nor was it confirmed he even had a fire-arm on the premisis. The officers went in blind and someone died because of it. It was not a high risk warrant. They were simply going to check to see if the person had a stolen gaming console or a legitimate bill of sale for the one he had. What next, executing the neighborhood bully when checking to see if he stole a kids bike?

This is the reaction you'd expect when raiding a drug lab or a dealer who is almost assuredly armed and problably high, not the suspect of a stolen console.
 
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I think you missed the point. He wasnt armed, nor was he ever confirmed to be, nor was it confirmed he even had a fire-arm on the premisis. The officers went in blind and someone died because of it. It was not a high risk warrant. They were simply going to check to see if the person had a stolen gaming console or a legitimate bill of sale for the one he had. What next, executing the neighborhood bully when checking to see if he stole a kids bike?

This is the reaction you'd expect when raiding a drug lab or a dealer who is almost assuredly armed and problably high, not the suspect of a stolen console.

I can't speak to whether the use of force was warranted, just that after that threshold was reached, there is no shoot-to-maim.

Once the decision to start firing is made, the outcome isn't affected too much by other considerations. Since the dead man supposedly answered the door, this was a close-range split-second (possibly panic-induced) shooting. It was probably over in a second or two.
 
this is the picture used to get the warrent. Apperantly this guy had a few violent record.
reg-1479471-943497.standalone.jpg
 
this is the picture used to get the warrent. Apperantly this guy had a few violent record.
http://www.newsobserver.com/media/2006/12/05/03/reg-1479471-943497.standalone.jpg

We have all learned from this that police should be considered armed and stupid until proven otherwise.

There is no excuse the F*ked up that is the truth. It happens oh well. Don't be a criminal and your chances of being killed by the police on accident are less. Still I wish they would kill fewer people unnecessarily. They didn't even know if those were real guns or air soft. And as was said it doesn't matter anyway. The police screwed up get over it. It happens.
 
Unbiased news providers indeed....


Using terms like "trigger happy" tends to be postional. This idiotic news organzation doesn't know what happened other than two deaths, for all we know the kid could have thrown a vase at the officers entering his dwelling. Much like almost everything I read in my daily newspaper, this group is undereducated on the topic and dispersing with the inflammable accusations. Until further information other than the death of a student and his dog are brought to light, I can't even give an opinion, and I wish news organizations would follow suit.
 
I sure am glad to know all topics on police brutality should now be in the general discussion forum yay.
 
I sure am glad to know all topics on police brutality should now be in the general discussion forum yay.

It involved a PS3, which has powers to make any topic appropriate anywhere, if you're a Sony fan.
If not, it's a devious murder machine.

I wonder what game was being played at the time.

Perhaps if there was a "I'm going to kill you all!" cut scene playing in the background, things just started out looking bad.
 
Here is a much better article: http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061203/NEWS/612030440

I fail to see any confirmation from the police that he was holding a PS3 controller. His roomate said he may have been holding a controller.

Well he certainly wasnt holding a fire-arm or anything like one or they would of made that known and the officers involved wouldnt be on paid suspension pending a review. Infact they didnt find one fire-arm in the residence.
 
Well he certainly wasnt holding a fire-arm or anything like one or they would of made that known and the officers involved wouldnt be on paid suspension pending a review. Infact they didnt find one fire-arm in the residence.
I know he wasn't holding a gun, but there were three unloaded guns in his room according to the article I posted.
Three unloaded guns were in the house - a hunting rifle and two shotguns - which were in Strickland's room, Rhoton said. And when Strickland answered the door, he may have been holding a PlayStation controller in his hand, he said.
 
Well he certainly wasnt holding a fire-arm or anything like one or they would of made that known and the officers involved wouldnt be on paid suspension pending a review. Infact they didnt find one fire-arm in the residence.
I believe its standard procedure to place a cop involved in any shooting on paid suspension until the investigation is done.
 
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