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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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