http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/17/1352423/-Texakana-Police-kill-disabled-black-man-holding-spoon-call-it-knife-Racists-online-cheer?detail=email
In Texarkana on Monday, a woman called 911 (click for the call) at around 2 AM to report a person in her garage. The woman was frightened and said that she heard banging on the windows from the person in the garage. A police office came to investigate, and found an African-American man holding something in his hand. The officer said the individual came at him in an aggressive manner, and so fired at him, killing him.
The man was Dennis Grigsby. From the article, "Family members say Grigsby had mental problems." He was holding a spoon, the officer said with the handle up, and the officer thought it was a knife.
The local NBC affiliate reports:
"Grigsby then allegedly made an aggressive move towards the officer while carrying a metal object. The officer said he ordered Grigsby to stop but he continued to approach, forcing the officer to fire a shot into Grigsby's chest."
His mother said.
"He was real sweet. He would never hurt anybody. He had a mental illness," said Evelyn Grigsby, Dennis Grigsby's Mother.
She was asleep inside their home when the shooting happened and she says she didn't know her son had left home.some of us are old enough to know about police training ranges where pop ups of criminals and innocents officers are to asset in split second timing who is friendly who is the enemy, have they abandoned those courses or are the officers disregarding training and shooting first and make up a story later in some cases with the help of DA's, captains and police unions. of late the murders of innocent citizens don't seem to jive with the reason another Black man is lying dead in the street.
places like Utah police kill more people than gangs, klan, abusers and other dissidents but we never hear about investigations into that phenomenon federal or local, why? is that what seems to be emboldening cops to go gorilla on American citizens doesn't matter if their state opposes capital punishment the police have taken that issue of the table and the state agenda by doing it all themselves. overkill at least, usurping do process at best.
http://issuehawk.com/igor/2014/11/24/utah-police-kill-more-people-than-gangs-drug-dealers-child-abusers.html
In this case, Dennis wandered from his house, ended up in the garage, and then started making noise. Perhaps he was trying to get out and was confused. Perhaps he merely was interested in the spoon and the windows. We don't know.
The police officer demanded he comply and shot him when he didn't. It's fairly clear to me that the police officer followed his training (which is a problem), although a man alone in a garage with a metal object is, I believe, someone you could back away from instead of forcing compliance. That's a police strategy point I come back to a lot. There are often other options unless someone is in imminent danger, but we lack the details to judge this one right now.mentally impaired Black guy with shiny object gets killed i know cops didn't know that but still they are supposed to be trained to assess their scene, old White guy on the street with a rifle gets talk down at a distance, whats wrong with that picture? or the police screamed at 12 year old while rolling up, jumping out and shooting and killing. i understand people calling in giving misinformation or the dispatcher leaving out key words but knowing that shouldn't cops adjust to the on site situation before coming in guns blazing ore is there a new definition of protect and serve?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/08/1350348/-911-Caller-There-s-a-Man-with-a-Gun-so-naturally-Police-sit-down-with-him-and-Talk
