They have absolutley no standing to comment on police procedure.

Astounding. Absolutely astounding.

b) just about all violent individuals that any police officer deals with have “severe emotional problems” as the 911 caller reported in this case. That does not mean it requires the dispatch of a crisis intervention officer nor does the department have resources to do so.

c) it is very easy to armchair this now, but everything happened in a matter of seconds. Police act based on the initial information they have and then have to react to dynamic, intense situations. Human perceptions heavily factor in: just look at the fact that the sister reported 4 shots, danapp (a witness) reports 6 shots, and the police are reporting 7.

d) the family should be allowed to grieve, and it should also be acknowledged that people dealing with tragic, traumatic circumstances sometimes do and say things that don’t make sense otherwise. To me, the question is not so much with the family, as with the media. Can the story be effectively told without blaring the “police are KKK” line repeatedly?

e) Ministers and activists have every right to ask questions, and they should be calling for an outside investigation by another agency. However, when Rev. Devin Miller, who is with a group that has the supposed mission of “trying to bridge the gap between citizens and police” says that “There was no reason for the shooting, and we firmly believe they intended to shoot him to death,” he is making a bold assertion with an incomplete set of facts and does a complete disservice to his community.

First off, even though the family was the ones that called the cops, the second they showed up and the pursuit all the sister could do was say over and over “IT’S MY BROTHER! HE’S HAVING AN EPISODE! PLEASE DON’T SHOOT HIM! DON’T SHOOT HIM!” all the way up to the point that they shot him.

I didn’t see the actual shooting as I was headed to the back thinking that the victim was going to make a break for it through the alley (obviously he didn’t) but between the time that the police rolled up and they shot him had to have been no more than 15-20 seconds. Is that really enough time to talk through a situation with someone who’s obviously not mentally stable?

I can’t say I saw and understand everything but shooting a man six times (yes, I heard 6 shots) seems very very excessive. I can’t say that it’s race mental but it all seems very suspicious. Why didn’t they shoot to incapacitate as opposed to killing him?

To me, this was about a poor person getting shot because they’re too poor to afford medicine for themselves, and/or they have no family to give them medicine.

It happens to poor people of all different races.

According to a story in today’s Pioneer Press, it states that this guy was suffering from “undiagnosed and untreated depression” and was “feeling pressured by family and financial circumstances”. That really doesn’t sound to me like a case of someone who has a mental illness, but more like a guy who didn’t bother to deal with his everyday problems that built up to a point where he just lost it instead of seeking help to get over his problems.

His relatives continue to lie to the press as well. They are claiming that this guy has never been arrested and was a model of perfect behavior, but the paper found out that he was arrested last year in Apple Valley on a charge of misdemeanor assault….apparently he got violent enough to kick and beat the shit out of a woman he was living with ….what a sweetheart he is!

The more that comes out of the mouths of his relatives, black leaders, etc… the more that I feel the cops acted in the only possible manner they could!