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Thursday, December 03, 2015

Look out he's nonchalantly walking away

So when I read this today,
SAN FRANCISCO -- Police were reviewing video and conducting an investigation Thursday amid social media outcry after officers shot and killed a man Wednesday who was allegedly holding a knife.

Cellphone video shows at least part of the incident leading up to the shooting and circulating through Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. Police have not yet identified the dead man, who reportedly stabbed another man about an hour before the shooting.

The stabbing victim went to San Francisco General Hospital around 3:49 p.m. and told a San Francisco Sheriff's Department deputy he was stabbed in the shoulder in the 6600 block of Third Street.

The victim gave deputies a description of the assailant, and officers were flagged down by a witness who provided further description.

Officers found the suspect around 4:34 p.m. and said he had a knife. Several officers arrived as backup, and according to police, they ordered the suspect to drop the knife several times.

When he didn't, shots rang out. The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
I was reminded of this.
Associated Press
Wednesday, December 28, 2005 


NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 27 -- Police officers shot and killed a man brandishing a knife in a confrontation that was partially videotaped by a bystander, setting off another internal investigation of the embattled police department.

Monday's daylight shooting on a busy street was the first involving police since New Orleans reopened after Hurricane Katrina. It follows a videotaped police beating that led to two firings in the department.

Monday's victim was identified by the coroner's office as Anthony Hayes, 38, of New Orleans.

A police spokesman, Sgt. David Adams, said on Tuesday that the officers who fired on the man have been reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation. But he defended their response, saying that at least one officer's life was in danger just before the gunfire.

"You have a subject who's lunging at them with a knife . . . swinging wildly at them and they're fearing for their life," Adams said. 
No criminal charges were brought in the Hayes case although the city eventually reached a civil settlement with the victim's family. It was one of several post-Katrina incidences of police violence in New Orleans and has largely faded from memory.

One reason for this is, while there was video of the scene, there was (as far as we know) none of the actual shooting itself. So we have nothing besides witness (mostly police) accounts to indicate whether or not Hayes actually "lunged" at anybody with his knife in a way that might justify the use of force.

Today's San Francisco case is different.  We have this.

A video posted by HotRod (@daniggahot) on


And this.





Don't really see the part where the guy does something that tells us, uh oh, they'd better shoot him. I wonder what a similar video of the Hayes shooting would look like.

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