Want to whittle some wood? get 5 slugs to the chest..

So they Shot Pinocchio's Father?
Next week they will taz Mother Goose.
This might mean they are looking at
Palin as Red Riding Hood.
Heck they might think I am the
Goose that lays Golden Budget Eggs!
Jack And Jill Invested in IRA and came tumbling Down.
The Puppets have started to kill the Puppet Makers!

reply to post by Funkydung


A tazer would have been appropriate in this situation. Why didn't the officer use a tazer?

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


When I googled for some stories about this case I found this in Tacoma:

Police were responding to a call that came in just after 3 p.m. saying a man was waving a knife around in front of a bus stop in the 6100 block of Sixth Avenue in Tacoma.

When officers arrived, Fulghum said, they told the man several times to put down the knife. The man did not, then "raised up the knife in an overhand threatening manner," and lunged at the officers, Fulghum said.

seattletimes.nwsource.com...

This from the original story in the OP:

Deputy Chief Nick Metz says the 27-year-old officer, Ian Birk, saw a man crossing the street with a knife and a wooden board. Metz says the officer got out of his car and approached. On an audio recording, the officer can be heard three times ordering the man to drop the knife. The man apparently turned toward the officer before he fired, but police are still trying to determine whether the man made any threatening move.

The Seattle Times says Williams was a member of the Chief Seattle Club in Pioneer Square. A club employee says he was a carver, like many in the club.

(William is the victim) .. apparently a wood carver was walking around Pioneer Square (where his club was) and was shot in the process of walking with his tools.

seattletimes.nwsource.com...

Seattle police Tuesday offered different details of Monday's fatal shooting of a homeless man by a patrol officer, with commanders saying they now don't know if the man advanced toward the officer with a knife as police originally reported.

Police excuse for shooting him:

"He could see the blade of the knife and the man was doing something to the board," Metz said.

There is a video from the patrol car that doesn't show the shooting (of course) but audio that details the officers ordering the guy to drop his knife... however..

But people who knew Williams say he couldn't hear out of one ear and wonder if that may have played a role in his failure to comply with the officer's commands.

I imagine the guy was walking minding his own business, a gungho cop jumps out and starts screaming at him and he at first has no idea whats going on and by the time he does he's flustered and confused, turns toward the commotion and gets shot in the chest.

My theory is further supported by:

Metz said about a minute passed between the time Birk saw Williams crossing the street and the time the fatal shots were fired.

In one minutes, a mere 60 seconds, a cop pulls over, switches the lights on, gets out and gives three commands and shoots a man dead on the side of the street.......

For carving wood.

From a distance of 9 feet.

Officer Birk never called for backup. His account was Williams lunged at him with the knife, but every witness says Williams was obliviously sitting on a wall next to the intersection whittling a wooden board.

One witnesses testimony:

Maurina said she watched the officer approach the man and saw him mouthing something to the man, who did not appear to respond.

"His body stance did not look threatening at all," she said of the man. "I could only see the gentleman's back, and he didn't look aggressive at all. He didn't even look up at the officer."

The officer approached the man, but was still "at least two car-lengths" away, Maurina said, when she heard the officer say, "Hey, hey, hey," followed by gunshots.

"I watched him kind of slowly, sort of gracefully and elegantly, fall to the ground," Maurina said of the man. "From what I saw, it did not look right."

IMO, seeing what evidence is available, the cop should be arrested for murder.

seattletimes.nwsource.com...


[edit on 9/3/2010 by Rockpuck]

Originally posted by Aggie Man
Hmmm...def guy whittling on the corner of a city street. Nah, no reason for him to be looking around and be aware of his environment.

As I said, if you have a sharp knife your not going to be looking around while carving. Being aware of your environment doesn't just entail visual. I can walk through my house in complete darkness without hurting myself, and I'm sure this guy could do the same in that area, in which was his home. It is his environment, he goes to a club in that area where he was killed... his friends in that club are wood carvers and artist too.

So yeah, there is very good reasons for him not to be looking around for an trigger happy cop.

Originally posted by Aggie Man
Seems to me that the guy saw the cop, yet refused to drop his knife. NOT SMART!

No.... but say if he did see the cop, he had no time to drop the knife...

Originally posted by Aggie Man
Bottom line, both parties were in the wrong here. BUT the cop was more wrong by using excessive force....or at least, overkill.

The wood carver did nothing wrong, he had no time to do anything!
It's all the cop fault....

This type of story is getting more commonplace by the day. We all have our opinions regarding the necessity of "Law Enforcement Officials" of which our disclosure of said opinion makes for quite a hot topic of debate.

I speak for one individual only, myself. Should any supposed LEO ever take the life of a member of my family, I can assure you that my response will be the top topic of this board, Drudge, etc.

They seem to think they are untouchable yet forget they bleed as do those they kill. Injustice is quickly becoming law. My ultimate goal is to live, let live and be left alone. Should a member of my family be taken in such a manner, the taker of said life would be wise to move to a deserted island...along with their entire family.

I have two lines drawn in my proverbial sand. This is one of them.

reply to post by Miraj


he didnt have one, probably would have killed the old boy with this to

Wee Mad

Well the guys dead so we will never hear him say "I told the cop I would cut out his effing eyeballs and slit his throat."

I just find it awfully hard to believe that this cop shot 5 rounds to a civilian's chest from 2' away because the man was whittling wood.

There's no way we are getting the full story.

Just my opinion though. Cop could be a nutcase too.

I am very curious why this police officer went straight for his pistol. Why didnt he use a less than lethal approach first? Like his taser? In my opnion this cop got buck fever. He probably was not trained well enough into how to deal with his adrenanline surge. But im only guessing.

i try to explain to people that the police have been militarized.
they are out to collect revenue. intimidate the populace.
we are not so much citizens to them , but civilians.
i seem to see more and more instances of their brutality..
more cameras around i suppose.

I think if a suspect has a knife they are not supposed to taze. It goes like this. You make a fist, the cop gets his club, you get a club the cop gets a tazer, you pull a knife and the cop gets a gun. They want to have a better weapon than the suspect. To cops, a knife and a tazer are equal. Guys with knifes can lunge really fast. So, maybe the cop was in the right to defend himself, but it looks like his is just another trigger happy oppressor.

am i sitting at the bus stop or in the park cleaning my finger nails with a little knife.
and then when i stand up i'm suddenly "wielding a knife"?
look out -im peeling an apple! call 911.. wtf ails people?
pumped full of fear all night with the tv programming their mushy brains..