Police shoot and kill crime victim.

[BanannaMan]

All of those horrific gun crime stories you hear about in America have come to the little town where I work.


Last night an 83 year old woman called Police to report a burgler in her house.
A few minutes later she again called, frustrated, as her house was less than a half a mile from the Police station and no one had arrived.
She then called her sister who lived next door and told her someone was in the house and she was going to flee to there.
She took a shotgun with her and after exiting from the rear of the house she turned around and fired through the glass storm door, presumably at the burgler.
She then ran towards the front door of her sister's house next door.

Police had arrived in front of the residence as she was exiting the rear and heard the gunfire.
They then spot her running "towards the street" with the shotgun.
They yell for her to stop and drop the gun.
Whether she was confused by the lights in her eyes or did not hear them is not known but she did not drop the weapon quickly enough and was shot and killed by 1 officer.
Her sister was standing at her front door watching, waiting to let her in.

The burgler escaped.

By laws here, the officer will likely be found justifed in the shooting.
1. Shotgun fire heard, she emerges with shotgun.
2. She did reply to police and did not drop her weapon.

But the people here are in a uproar.
For chirssakes this was 83 year old woman!!!!
Did they think she was an armed burgler???
Did they have to kill an old woman who was running away from them??
Could they have not wounded her??
I'd like to know how long she was given to drop the weapon before she was killed.

I hope the people will continue to stand up and see that justice is done here.
This never should have been.

Sad terrible day here for the people who live here,
and for the other Policemen and women who had nothing to do with this but are now recieving the backlash.

[Spank86]

Police are taught to shoot for the centre of mass, you can only shoot to disarm with a pistol if you're in a movie.

I can only think that they were unable to tell how old she was when outlined by headlights.

[MisterTommyH]

A perfect example of why our police shouldn't be routinely armed.

Sad to hear.

[missjhb]

This makes me sad... there was no need to shoot and kill an 83 year old woman!

[sunshine]

pistols are too inaccurate, they could of aimed for her leg missed, she turns and returns fire a scatter doesnt miss that often. More than likely only had an outline figure to see and made the call to shoot within seconds of seeing her after telling her to drop the weapon. you would be more annoyed if it was the burglar escaping with a shotgun because the police didnt shot

[pookie]

that was a tragedy and a really sad story. For a small town I can only imagine the impact to those affected.

Unfortunately the police are in such an awkward situation and hopefully they can make the right call. I hope they catch the burglar.

[L3nny]

Also a perfect example of why guns should be strictly controlled as they are in this country.

[Owenski]

If I'd seen someone running around with a shot gun it'd take a lot of guesses before I guessed it could be an 83 year old woman.
If the officer arrived to see the shots then see someone running about with a firearm then no wonder he reacted like he did.
Her behaviour suggests she must have been very distressed and that means irrational, irrational people do not make good conversation and they don't need to if they're wielding a 12bore. Tazer may have been more apt, but Im guessing this wasnt someone he wanted to chance getting close enough to to taze.

[Skopak]

The police in the UK prioritise calls, so for example, a single woman or someone elderly would have a higher priority than a healthy 25 year old male. This lady's first call should have been classed as a high priority & been responded to before things got out of hand.

So sad that this happened. Also glad that we don't have the same gun laws here.

[missjhb]

Perhaps on the other hand the police should have arrived a bit sooner, but again even though the police station was half a mile away was there anyone there to respond quick enough. You really don't know

[jambo]

Tragic outcome, but hindsight is always 20/20.

The problem is often that people see what they expect to see in a given situation. We have fairly tight gun laws in the UK, and highly trained, specialist armed response units. Faulty intelligence suggesting that Jean Charles de Menezes was definitely an armed terrorist still led to an unarmed man being shot dead while sitting on the underground.

If the woman had been calmer, if her sister hadn't been charging round in the dark letting off rounds, if the light had been better, or if the policeman hadn't been led to believe that the burglary had escalated to a shoot-out, things might have ended better.

Jambo

[Biker Biggles]

Tragic outcome but I dont understand what else the cops could do if confronted by someone running out of a house armed with a shotgun after gunfire is heard.Just imagine the response from the masses if the burgler had emerged with a gun,the cops hadnt taken him down,because they wer'nt sure who was who, and he had then shot the sister next door.
Sometimes I think people want to have their cake and eat it from the police and other services.

[Spank86]

Taser would have been an iffy call too, not sure I'd want to be responsible for tasering and causing muscular convulsions in someone with their finger on a shotgun trigger.

[-Ralph-]

The public certainly do want to have thier cake and eat it, but the police officer wasnt armed in the first place, then the public cant be unhappy with the decision made (either a shoot or a dont shoot).

Furthermore if the old lady didn't have a shotgun in the house, or if the burglar couldn't buy one in Walmart leading to the police officers suspicion that every burglar will be armed, then the whole sorry incident wouldnt have happened.

[haggis]

At 86, would she survive a taser? Either the shock or fall to the ground could have killed her?

Also it shows up an interesting massive difference between the US gun toting public and ours. How many pensioners do you know that would willingly hold a firearm once, let alone keep and use one for defence?

My mum is 82 and terrifies me watching her using her own knife to chop veg! :-D

[Specialone]

A perfect example of why our police shouldn't be routinely armed.

Sad to hear.

Yep I agree, while there are humans involved there will always be accidents and mistakes.

Also a perfect example of why guns should be strictly controlled as they are in this country.

Disagree there mate, it's not fair we can't even go to a gun club and plunk with any weapon we like, no danger to the public whatsoever.
It's just been a knee jerk reaction to a handful of murdering b'tards, but the rest of us suffer.
If we were allowed arms to defend our homes, there would be a lot less burglaries that's for sure.