Dang.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50938312-76/police-armed-jordan-lds.html.csp

Wrong.

The man was armed and fleeing. If they had cause to believe he could have caused harm to others (a gun and refusal to cooperate is enough), they can take him out.

Looks like cops were ok. An armed man fleeing can be shot. A cop can NEVER fire a warning shot....You don't know where they will land.Same deadly force laws apply to U.S.Marshalls as well as anyone else.

Sandie, not sure where you get your information, but your whole post is patently untrue.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2010 10:25AM by dontevenremember.

There are TWO in SOUTH Jordan. I've lived here in SoJo for 35 years and couldn't let that slide.

Carry on.

He had his life taken.

It's very easy to play Monday morning quarterback when there's a shooting involving a cop. Some people are ready to throw the cop to the wolves.

Let's not lose sight of what happened. The tragedy here is that the man who died was probably mentally ill. And now there's a cop going home to his family after shooting a guy. He'll probably never forget it, and he'll always wonder what would have happened if he had shot one inch to the right or left, or if he should have shot.

I am an armchair observer, but every time there's a story about a cop in a life and death situation on TV, the cop always says, "I made up my mind, I was going home to see my family." I"m guessing that's what went through the cop's mind.

And years from now when he's an old man, he'll still wake up in the middle of the night and play those 2 or 3 minutes over and over again in his mind.

I'm no expert, but my guess is it's ok to use deadly force in self-defense or in defense of others. If the guy with the shotgun was acting like he was about to shoot somebody, the cop made a good call.

These guys have an extremely hard job, and their life is on the line every day. They are human and they make mistakes, but I'm withholding judgment until the end of the investigation.

Benjamin Speakman had a plan and an arrest for a murder/suicide plot in Feb or March of '09.

I may be incorrect but...I think he was released to a condo/half-way house in the last month or two. This seems like the plan he had. Speakman was planning to kill his MIL and wife-now exW, from my understanding This man had mental health problems and planned to kill himself in the Celestial Room with a shotgun after killing others at inside a temple with an AK47... a South Jordon Temple.

Anyone else recall this man and arrest?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2010 11:02AM by wings.

Not every criminal/law breaker is mentally ill. That is offensive to people, like me, who have real, valid, conditions.

Also, why are you people posting on christmas? Go be with your families. Yes, I am aware that it's called 'Christmas', but I don't think the name matters much. Pretty much every single culture has a holiday within two weeks before/after the winter solstice.

Are you irritated that people find comfort here? Don't atheists have the right to enjoy their holidays on boards like this?

Further more, the Salt Lake cops do treat mentally ill people badly because they don't check to see if a person is under treatment. Sometimes they don't have the time, but most of the time they just don't care.

One of my sons has schizophrenia. He offended a copy in a non-chargeable way, called him an idiot or something so the cops "taught him a lesson" by driving him up Parley's canyon and dropping him off at night, in the winter, without a jacket, no phone and no way to get home. Mentally ill people have impaired judgment but I'd say the judgment of the police isn't much better.

And after they shoot a homeless guy, what they usually say is "I thought he was armed because he reached into his pocket". Be careful around police, move slowly because you are assumed to be armed until proved otherwise.


Anagrammy

Are you serious? They even planted guns in his vehicle to make him the badguy?! Just for showing the sure siugn of some nail?


Well, as long as they are saying they don't know the details we might as well fill them in ourselves, right? :)

Sane cops don't want to shoot anyone. You know how much red tape it creates and you possibly can be ruined financially as the family of the person you shot sues you and the dumb jury awards them your hide.

You're right. Running around with a shotgun on Christmas is the perfectly sane thing to do. : )

Besides, nobody said that every criminal is mentally ill, and not every mentally ill person is a criminal. Some of them are just over-sensitive.

He came armed on his person and his vehicle. Makes me wonder about the back story. What was going on with him that he would go to those extremes at Christmas time.
Lots of people have a very difficult time with major holidays.

Clearly this "servant of the people"/"officer of Peace" is a religious zealot and I hope that the family of the man shot will find redress in a fair and open court of law. Police shootings happen all the time, but one where the perp has an entry wound in his back? My guess is that this TBM, Monson-filatin' officer is going down.

I remember reading about people going to the hospital on Christmas eve out of sheer loneliness. This looks like the article.
http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/16/on-christmas-the-lonely-seek-refuge-in-hospitals/

The holidays can sure be filled with drama, which is why I enjoy living away from any family at this time of the year. Whatever drama happened - I completely missed. I don't feel left out. I feel fortunate.

On the other hand, I do hope to cultivate a relationship with my child(ren) such that they want to be around us for the holidays. I have seen it happen with exmo and nonno families. I know it's possible.