I don’t understand how the State Police determine what to do in any given situation. Sometimes a “domestic situation with a fire arm involved” is treated like a massive terrorist event with SWAT team and every available police officer with high powered rifles attending, and sometimes with just a couple officers sent to fix the situation. But in those times when it is determined proper and fitting for a display of maximum drama, things can and do get out of hand. The realities of the situation get lost in the excitement and fear on the part of those who are supposed to be highly “trained” to handle such situations.
In this instance, a mentally disturbed man grabs a shotgun and a cell phone and runs up into the woods, unprepared to spend the night out in a very cold rain, with no food or water or blankets. One man, all alone with ONLY a shot gun. Anyone who knows anything about guns would know the approximate range of a shot gun. And anyone who knows about being in the woods, cold, wet, and growing late in the day, knows that you can only do it for so long and then you have to come out of the woods for better fare. Now, the Police seemed to feel they couldn’t handle the situation by themselves, so they call out the SWAT team. That means there are MANY police against one man. MANY police with weapons of ALL kinds including, I am sure, more than one high powered rifle. Probably police with special sniper training. Probably some pretty good shots. Anyone who knows about guns probably has some idea of the range of a high powered rifle.
Now, please explain to all the nice people why it was necessary to gun down in COLD BLOOD a mentally disturbed man in the woods who never actually fired a shot at them, and probably had only a small idea what he was actually doing in his mental state. Could not a large group of police equipped as they were either have waited the man out, or, in the event that it actually became NECESSARY to fire upon him, if he WERE to have shot at them (and missed, because any intelligent person would have been out of range) those excellent and highly trained marksmen could have shot him in the leg, the foot, the hand, perhaps even shot his gun out of his hand? Just enough to cause him to surrender. Instead, one exceptionally enthusiastic officer fired numerous times, wildly, as if terrified. Mass hysteria follows and soon numerous bullets are flying his way. Shoot to kill. Why they even pretend that they were concerned that he might have been a danger to HIMSELF is a mystery. The moral of THIS story, and many more like it: Don’t call 9-11 unless someone is dying of a heart attack on your kitchen floor.
Calhoun Underground 