Baltimore: Black woman shot dead by police during alleged standoff while holding son

a reply to: Azureblue

There was a deadly weapon involved and a innocent (child) and repeated warnings were given.

You cant save them all.

Even in the UK our police still shoot some every year. Stands to figure not all US police shootings will be unjustifiable.

Ok, so a break down of the actual story as reported . . .
1. police arrive to serve warrants (on her and her "man")
2. a five year old boy says that the police (who are probably stacked on the apartment with guns drawn) says the police are trying to kill them
3. nobody answers the door so the police gain entry with a KEY from the landlord
4. the boyfriend (the smart one obviously) runs out of the home carrying a one year old and gets arrested (not beat up or shot, but arrested)
5. police approach the woman who points a shotgun at them, whereby they retreat and call in a negotiator
6. there is a long standoff
7. there is a confrontation during which the woman is using her 5yo kid as a human shield / hostage
8. some idiot cop (I say this because if you can't make the shot, then you should not) fires a single shot and misses
9. the woman fires back at police with the shotgun (and misses)
10. another cop shoots back and kills the woman

Now, I don't know what the SOP in Maryland is, but in GA cops are trained to take out hostage takers . . . not be nice to them. Excuse me ma'am but would you mind putting down the scared kid while we all have a nice cup of tea?

As for a kill shot instead of a wounding one, well cops are trained to shoot center mass (so as not to endanger anyone or anything behind the target). In the case of someone holding a human shield, center mass becomes the head.

My analysis is as follows:
1. One nominee for this year's Darwin Award . . . the woman
2. A week suspension without pay for lack of judgement . . . cop 1
3. A commendation and attaboy for a good shoot . . . cop 2

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: Azureblue

There was a deadly weapon involved and a innocent (child) and repeated warnings were given.

You cant save them all.

Even in the UK our police still shoot some every year. Stands to figure not all US police shootings will be unjustifiable.

Unless someone was a direct and credibly threatened all they had to do was get everyone to back away to take the pressure of the woman which would likely prevent her from doing anything radical. The cop was not a risk because he could have could have simply backed away and taken cover.

its unlikely the child was at risk as how could she harm the child while holding shotgun gun? How heavy is a shotgun? It would seem a little difficult to me for a woman holding a shotgun to use it on a child she was holding. For her to harm the child she would first have to put the child down and then stand back and lift the shotgun with both hands.

Always strikes me as odd that there was and is never is anyone trained in the appropriate technique, there to talk the woman down which is how all such cases were managed prior to cops being given guns. The public could have been instructed not to just back off but to back off a long distance so the woman did not feel under pressure to do anything at all.

Its well known, the longer the person is left in these kinds of circumstances the less lily they will carry through any threat. The NZ police used this technique right up to the mid 1980's I was once told.

On the other hand, suppose we wanted to get the woman killed ASAP because she was using up precious police time. The thing to do would be get her as crowded as possible,heighten her stress, put her under pressure to do something so we can knock her over, have every man and his dog scream at her to put the gun down, that will definitely wind her up to do something. As soon as she moves an inch, we then have justification to claim she was about to harm somebody so bang bang, gotcha.

Now, that took exaclyyyyyyyyyy whatwasit? 28 seconds. Damnnnn. I reckon we can do it in 20 seconds flat next time.

Rightoh 10 buks says you cant.

a reply to: Azureblue

did you not even read the relevant article before spewing this diatribe?

the woman was in her house not in public

police found her pointing the gun at them and backed off

negotiators were called in ( you know, the trained experts)

THEN S.W.A.T. was called in (in case you didn't know, that is Special Weapons And Tactics . . . which implies they are better able to deal with these types of threats)

And yes, if someone can shoot themselves with a shotgun, they can assuredly shoot a child with it. Fact is, we don't know if she would have harmed her child, but if she was mentally unstable enough to use him as a shield, then we can't say what she would have done one way or another. But the longer she is allowed to be in said situation, the more volatile it becomes.

some people will blame the police no matter what they do, if the crazy lady had killed her kid and herself,while the police were trying to talk her into surrendering, some people would blame the police for not going in sooner and shooting the women to save the child. The police spent 8 hours negotiating with her,the woman obviously had no respect for the laws,she said they don`t apply to her, and she obviously didn`t value her own life.

a reply to: rexsblues

Exactly. Her traffic stop was a trip also..

A black woman armed with a shotgun was killed by a cop

that should be the title, not this click bait.

a reply to: JourneymanWelder

or hey, how about "a woman with a shotgun eventually killed by police."

applying the skin color of the woman to the title somehow makes in an injustice by default.

This is the same woman who was arrested about a year ago at a maryland beach resort while she was 9 months pregnant and involved in a riot.She is trying to sue the police for arresting her at that riot.
This women never had any respect for the laws or the police.