The other side of cops and deadly force

[Sangersteve]

It’s been nearly three-and-a-half decades since I killed Edward Randolph, but when I fix my mind on those desperate seconds from the time he thrust the butcher’s knife he clasped with both his hands into my partner Dennis Azevedo’s chest and the moment I shot him flush in his own, it can seem like yesterday.

After being stabbed in the chest and fending off several other attempts to murder him, Dennis fell flat on his back and Randolph leapt on top of him, trying to force the knife he held with both hands into Dennis’s throat. My first reaction when I got close enough to help was to reach in and grab Randolph’s wrists with both of my hands, as Dennis was doing. But Randolph jerked his arms away and broke my grip.

The crucial moments from the time Randolph first attacked Dennis and when I arrived at my partner’s side lasted no more than 12 seconds, perhaps as few as seven. A mere three to four seconds passed from the time I first grabbed the suspect’s wrists to the time I pulled the trigger.

Those last few seconds have proven to be among the most significant in my life. And I have revisited them, along with the moments that preceded them, many times in the past several months as our nation has plunged into an emotionally charged debate over police and deadly force. News reports are filled with people denouncing trigger-happy cops.

The national debate that has broken out since Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown in Ferguson,Missouri, has been frustrating to watch because so few of the participants understand the true nature of deadly force in American police work — the complexity of many situations in which officers fire; how officers think, what they feel and how they perceive things during incidents in which they discharge their guns; the emotional toll that a shooting can take on an officer; and, perhaps most importantly, the fact that police officers could use deadly force much more often than do.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/ ... z3ZeAX5waE

[millergrovesue]

Interesting article.

[grouchy]

Thanks for posting this Steve. I hate it that this man had a
lot of guilt issues.

[millergrovesue]

Thanks for posting this Steve. I hate it that this man had a
lot of guilt issues.

Yeah, I do too but just think that means he's a normal human. Bet the guy whose life he saved, by killing the bad guy, has no guilt at all.