Seattle Cop Executes Homeless Woodcarver
 

The Seattle peeps probably know about this case, but for the rest of the community in the dark..... a Seattle cop is being investigated after he shot and killed a homeless guy who had the gall to walk across the street while carving a piece of wood (he's a wood carver).

The patrol car video below:

In the video the guy is just walking across the street, minding his own business, and appears to be carving a piece of wood. Cop pulls over, gets out and screams, "Drop The Knife!!!" 4 seconds later he unloads 4 shots into the wood carver, killing him. You might not be able to hear it in this video, but a passer-by yells at the cop saying, "He wasn't doing anything!!!". The cop says defensively, "He wouldn't drop the knife."

Just fucking crazy. Think about it. Carving a piece of wood and minding your own business, and you got 4 seconds to figure out who the fuck is yelling at you or your dead. And btw, the guy had a 3 inch knife, which is legal in Seattle.

Seattle Police Department inquiry determined that the shooting was not justified, but I'm guessing the cop walks like they usually do.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/26428409/detail.html

HA HA. Damn, I even used the search feature and everything!

Well the formal inquest began today, so that is my defense :)

Either way, put the knife down means, put the knife down.

Um no it doesnt, he was carrying a LEGAL sized knife. So why should he put it down?

If a cop comes into your house and says they have to rape your wife by inserting a fist in her to check for "weapons" are you going to let them do it because "check for weapons means check for weapons".

you people are idiots. Someone dies senselessly and its "hey put down the knife means put down the knife".

what planet are you from you donkey?

so a guy walking down the street, carrying a legal sized knife gets shot to death, but hey no biggy he was TOLD to put it down. we are all fucked.

:2 cents:

stupid racist fucker ... :2 cents: enjoy ass fucking in jail ...

These are the scum bags that become cops.

What if the guy was deaf?

What if he didn't speak English?

What if he had a hearing problem?

What if within that 4 second period, his drunken state did not allow him to comprehend what was going on?

What if he had on headphones and was listening to music, not having time to remove them to hear what the police was saying?



Prick cop. I can only hope the worst happens to him.

If you can justify the cops actions, you are missing something.

Well, it has been a few months. :winkwink:

The inquisition into the police officer did start today though - http://www.mynorthwest.com/category/...e-but-to-fire/

Assuming one is not deaf and dumb...when an armed person tells you to do something...it may be advisable to comply...and complain at a later point in time.

the guy was walking away , if you aren't doing anything wrong , you wouldn't think he was directing his order at him , much like if you were carving a thanksgiving turkey and a cop came in the door and yelled drop the knife. I'm sure we would all drop the knife, but not right away , first you would probably be like " what , me , i am carving a turkey " , logic says drop the knife , reality says you would be suprised.. way too quick and not at all inline with any police departments policy on when to use deadly force

im not watching that. mental note drop the damn knife.

Nice analogy, dildo.

Of course it is not inline with policy...and I am satisfied the cop will pay a price for his actions.

I'm not defending the cop, but if you listen at the end of the video you can hear him say that he told the guy multiple times to put the knife down, that he didn't listen and he turned it towards him.

Since we can't see it, we have no idea exactly what that means. We don't know how far away the guy was nor how he responded.

I am assuming since they ruled the shooting unjustified witnesses must have said that the guy wasn't acting in a threatening way, but none of us were there and you can't see how it went down on the video.

Sadly, there are bad cops out there. There are cops out there who shouldn't be cops and there are cops out there who are scared on the job and that fear leads them to do things they shouldn't do. This is the way I look at it. If a cop tells me to put down the knife, I'm going to put down the knife. I would rather live to fight for my rights another day than die because a guy is overstimulated and shoots me for no reason. What is unfortunate for all of us is that it is very hard to determine what cops will act like this in the heat of the moment and those that won't. It is sadly one of those things that you don't learn until it is too late.

One other thing. If you are walking down the street with a knife in your hand, legal knife or not, there is a pretty good chance you are going to draw attention to yourself. I'm not saying the guy deserved to die, he didn't, but he did put himself in a position where he could be in danger.

Well, most sane people see a native american homeless guy carving some wood (especially in Seattle; not exactly Compton, CA), they don't think he's a gangster looking to shank some fools like he is in a prison yard. He was even using the cross walk while walking across the street lol. I also think it is telling that the lady screams at the cop "He wasn't doing anything!!" (you gotta turn up the sound to hear it..but it is clear what she said and has been confirmed).

I've had a gun pulled on me by a cop (for jaywalking btw), and I was pretty cool about it (but scared shitless). Just crazy because when someone yells at you sometimes you need a few seconds to adjust, and based on the video, the homeless dude was shot and killed 7 seconds from the first demand, and 4 seconds for the last demand. It happened that quickly.

Of course, the cop is gonna say, "I feared for my life", despite the fact that some old dude who probably has reflexes like an elephant was up against an armed, younger, sober and in shape officer.

As I said above, I'm not defending the cop. Based on what we can hear, he shot the guy too quickly and for no reason. We can also assume that if they found the shooting unjustified that the cop was in the wrong for doing so.

That said, if you walk down the street, no matter what race you are or where you live, with a knife in your hand you are going to attract attention. If a cop drives by and sees you doing this, chances are he is going to stop and talk to you to see what is going on. Of course 99% of the cops would be a lot calmer and would have dealt with it in a much better way than this guy did. I'm simply saying there are common sense things you can do to avoid putting yourself into situations where you might encounter one of these bad cops.

Wow I just figured out that cops suck!

Theres a bit motre to this story than just that video...

Last time this was posted, someone found a police video, of compilations of the same guy getting stopped on multiple occasions by police, taken from a dashboard in car camera...

It shows him CONSTANTLY being belligerent, drunk, a troublemaker etc, and in one video, (where he is refusing to stop panhandling and harassing customers outside of a burgerking) He clearly makes threats that he intends to Kill the female officer.

He has (allegedly) made such threats to police on multiple occasions.

I am not saying this makes the OP video 'justified'... Just that he was apparently a consistant trouble maker - Race immaterial - and not just a 'peaceful native american going about his business'

1. old news.
2. the cop committed murder and should got to jail.

agreed. can't just assume you were heard and understood

thats no cop thats a cold blooded killer... how he pass a psyche test?

They really have to stop recruiting people based on their size and start considering the character...

damn that's pretty messed up

Just like cops over here in Montreal half of them are not qualified to be cops. Either to young to have a gun, to "petite" or plain just nuts with the "I've got a badge and a gun" syndrome.

I've got a cop friend here in Montreal who did tell me once that he'd be nervous getting stop by some of the nutjobs working on the force with him.

the guy turned around to see if someone was talking to him...at that point the idiot opened fire.

some cops are fucking stupid, he will probably cleared of all wrong doing by SIU and let go..maybe even a promotion to get him off the street.

how is this old?? i havent seen it.

Yea, damn stupid having a knife ...

Didn`t he get the memo that GUNS are ok ?

that cop is a criminal.

fuck the police.

It's completely normal to walk down the street, knife in hand, carving a piece of wood. I do it all the time.

That is a really sick one. This country is so vastly different than the one I grew up in, but occupies the same exact space.

Do you really think that cop's life was in danger and he needed to risk shooting bystanders
on an open street?

I don't.

And do things like tasers and mace work?

They do.

The guy looked like an old man that would probably fall on his ass if he
tried to swing a knife at someone with any decent force.

Damn, this is sad.

You might as well go kill a prostitute and be happy about it based on the bullshit
you just said.

I mean, she's a bitch and trouble maker, so just gun her down while she's walking home
and doing nothing.

Bottom line : if he was such a pain in the ass then why wasn't he charged all those
times by the cops and already serving time?

He's not serving time because he broke no laws.


Here's the most likely real story behind this guy.
Simple : He is a panhandler/wood carver that is homeless and business owners
want this guy away from their store fronts begging and selling his wood carvings so
the cops are always on his ass; constantly violating his civil rights to be on the sidewalk.
He's told them to fuck themselves for doing that and that would be the extent of his law breaking.

Trying to paint the guy as a law breaker when he has no charges is lame.

Cop lovers make up the most ridiculous things to shield cops from justice when cops
break the law. It's so stupid.

People commit crime : Cops are people.

When are you going to get it?


Juvenile minds think that cops are angles from heaven rushing to save them.
Mature minds keep their eyes on the cops and prosecute the ones that commit crime.

On this one Meta I have to dis agree. In Most states and I am pretty sure washington has the same law. Failure to obey a lawful command. Failure to do so is arrestable. In this case he approached the guy and told him to put the knife down. The guy refused and if he was withing 21 feet of the guy, he would end up being justified in the shooting. Especially if the guy approached him with the knife or made any overt movements. The video of course does not tell.

It also remains to be seen what had happened prior to this meeting. Was there a call out for an armed homeless man doing something?

Lots more needed for the whole truth. Either way that cop has an uphill battle on his hands.

The officer discharged his weapon with no immediate threat to himself .. They are trained to not shot unless being attacked .. the gun is supposed to be a defensive tool until absolutely needed ...

or the person hasn't frozen from the gun pointed at them