Victim's Mother: 'My Child Had No Weapon'

Victim's Mother: 'My Child Had No Weapon'

www.myfoxwghp.com

PLEASANT GARDEN, N.C. (WGHP) -- The mother of an Iraq War veteran who was killed by a Guilford County Sheriff's deputy Monday said her son was carrying a hockey stick when the deputy shot him.

Sheriff B.J. Barnes said that when deputies arrived at the home on East Steeple Chase Rd., Dylan Hartsfeld threatened them with some type of weapon.

"The officers approached him, he approached the officers. There was a threatening, menacing manner that accrued, and because of that, Mr. Hartsfeld was shot and killed," said Barnes.

"My child had no weapon," said Dylan's mother, Kimberly Hartsfeld.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 1-10-2008 by Incitatus]

[edit on 1-10-2008 by Incitatus]

It seems like everyday there's another story about cops needlessly killing people. A young vet come back home, surviving two tour in Iraq, just to get murdered by cops. This appears to be a case where a taser, or other non-lethal means would have sufficed. I don't know what the problem is. They would rather kill someone than make the effort to solve these situations without violence.

Do cops today have no conscience or do they have no balls?



www.myfoxwghp.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Incitatus


Quite agree.

Charge the cop with murder.

I would personally wish to see what kind of options the Deputy had at his disposal, as in that being whether or not if he had a tazer or something less lethal than a firearm. Because not all Police departments can afford to fully equip their officers. In some places officers might have to provide their own equipment.
Plus we would need more details on this incident BEFORE reaching any conclusions. There is simply not enough information here to make a proper judgement.

And keep in mind:

She said that an incident earlier in the day when paramedics were called to the home may have triggered a post-traumatic response from her son.

Originally posted by spec_ops_wannabe
I would personally wish to see what kind of options the Deputy had at his disposal, as in that being whether or not if he had a tazer or something less lethal than a firearm. Because not all Police departments can afford to fully equip their officers. In some places officers might have to provide their own equipment.
Plus we would need more details on this incident BEFORE reaching any conclusions. There is simply not enough information here to make a proper judgement.

And keep in mind:

She said that an incident earlier in the day when paramedics were called to the home may have triggered a post-traumatic response from her son.

A valid argument. However, keep this in mind, even if the much vaunted taser was not available the officers likely had a multitude of options at their disposal. It has been shown in several studies that officers often resort to firearms when hands or batons are equally acceptable options. This is often do to a fear response that could be trained out with sound exercise and conditioning drills.

After 10 years as a street and rescue medic, what I've learned to fear most is panic---and panic and firearms don't mix. IMHO

reply to post by spec_ops_wannabe


I am a friend of Dylan's. This incident happened in Guilford county which encompasses one of the biggest (it used to be THE biggest, but I am not sure if that is still the case) cities in North Carolina. I'm sure they have the funding for tasers. If you google Dylan Hartsfeld there is another website that has clips from the dispatch tapes online. I think you can hear somebody say that they had to tase Dylan's father, though I'm not totally sure if this actually occurred.

To speak to the quote about the emergency response earlier in the day... Again, if you search for other articles, you will see that Dylan's father called 911 because Dylan fell down a long set of stairs leading to their basement. He has had a past shoulder surgery and this re-injured his arm. Dylan's past in the military makes him uneasy about medical attention and hospitals, so he was unhappy about the 911 call and made it clear that if EMS came, he wasn't going anywhere. He then took off, using a hockey stick as a makeshift crutch, presumably necessitated by his fall. It is my belief that the police thought that the hockey stick was the machete they claimed Dylan charged them with.

I'll also bring to everyone's attention, if it has not already be done, that the time elapsed between the arrival of the police and the alert of "shots fired, man down" was FIVE SECONDS. This has been reported by local news who have drawn their conclusion from the dispatch tapes.

I don't have a problem with police. Knowing Dylan may make be biased, but I can't say this shooting was in good faith.