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Car chase in Paramount
- Thread starter snake fish
- Start date
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What kind of move was that at the end, driving slowly into the blockade of policemen? Driver must have had a gun drawn or been suicidal, because that was only going to end in gunfire. He should have surrendered as soon as he was cornered. Wonder if he knew his life was over... Sad waste of space.
adversarial
Member
At 2MPH. Oh no.
They're replaying the footage... this driver almost killed a motorcyclist, not to mention nearly hitting two other cars. Allowing the driver to continue would have only risked the innocent lives. He refused to surrender. I don't blame them.
They just mentioned that they were armed at one point and tossed a gun out the window.
Daffy Duck
Member
I imagine the driver took the majority of them....in the video you see a puff of smoke come from the passenger door so he was very lucky there to not get shot then.
I mean, it was pretty clear that he was trying to drive around one of the patrol cars. The officers were on the opposite side of the road with multiple cars between them when they opened fire on the driver. Would have expected them to shoot out the tires and immobilize the car. Still, he was driving very recklessly on small, local roads and could have injured or killed a lot of people. Can't deny that.
Edit: Not trying to defend the culprit of a police chase, and a dangerous one at that. But I can see where people are coming from. That was a lot of gunfire.
That other guy is crazy luck to have survived. That looked like a ton of shots fired.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
You can't drive a car at officers and not expect to get shot...especially after nearly killing people by driving like a maniac through intersections.
old
Member
The EMTs sure acted like they weren't in any hurry.
This person had every chance to stop. He had already demonstrated that he had no regard for the life of other motorists. If they let him go around and he hit a car at 80 mph and killed a family, is that a better outcome? Cops did the best thing in a situation that the criminal created.
He could have speed up / swerve at any moment. You dont approach officers that are on foot in your car.
That's what I said? I just would have expected shots to the tires first before immediately trying to kill the driver. *shrug*
Edit:
Also, this.
That's how I feel. Shoot to immobilise the car, not to kill the driver when there is a passenger inside.
Shoot out tires, driver continues, injures or kills innocent people.
or
Fire immobilizing shot, force second suspect to surrender. Driver maybe gets a second chance at life, if not, its his fault. What the hell is a LEO supposed to do?
PeterLegend
Member
Nah
Even if he wasn't innocent, he still wasn't the one driving the vehicle or responsible for trying to run over the police. Stealing a car isn't punishable by death
The driver was a suspected armed car thief. Approaching them, even to drive by is putting the officers in danger. He wasn't stopping, so immobilizing a car with a potentially armed person that is not willing to turn himself in even when cornered means a shootout at point bank range is possible.
He had his chance to get out alive, and instead, he drove right up to the cops.
Vinsanity.
Member
Are you really serious? If he was attempting to get back out onto the road, then people's lives were in danger. They have the right to shoot if their lives or other people's lives are in danger. What if they don't shoot, let him drive 2mph past them back to the roadway, then he drives like a maniac again, and he causes a head-on collision with someone else that dies? Also, shooting out the tires doesn't stop the car - this isn't a movie.
I don't think it was necessary to drive his car towards the police blockade, effectively putting your own fate into the hands of people with guns pointed at you.
It really can't be so easy as saying "trigger happy police"... this wasn't like Michael Brown or some case of police brutality, where the suspect was no violent threat. There are actual cases of trigger happy police that deserve your scrutiny. Doesn't sound like youre considering all of the details of this particular situation.
I agree with you for a single person in the car. A passenger changes it for me, sorry.
Why didn't they try and shoot at the tires?
Four_Chamber
Member
I think this was appropriate- this guy was a friggin idiot and nearly murdered several people. School buses were on the road and he had a great opportunity to surrender when he was clearly stuck at the end of the chase. Driving straight at a cop is not a good idea.
All in all, I have no fault with what the police did here.
All in all, I have no fault with what the police did here.
Completely agreed. This person was suspected as being armed, and he was cornered with a wall of police blocking his exit. Instead of surrendering, he chose to go toward the dozen guns pointed toward him.
Immobilizing the car with an suspected armed assailant puts puts the officers' lives at risk. Allowing him to pass puts the innocent drivers on the street back at risk, and he already almost killed a motorcyclist and two sedans driving 70+ mph. If the driver wanted to keep his life, he wouldn't have tried to go through, or barely around, a wall of police with their guns on him.
Conflating this incident with the actually egregious acts of unprovoked or unjustified police shootings only muddles the argument as being against all cops. Not all police officers in shootings are guilty of that accusation.
adversarial
Member
That makes too much sense.
Pestilence11
Member
NA? Don't lump Canada in.
Because this isn't the movies and most police officers are pathetic shots. They aren't this highly trained highly proficient weapon handling beasts that people seem to think they are. Take this from someone that is a pistol instructor.
snake fish
Member
Jesus I didn't expect it would end like that. Good thing nobody got hurt before the outcome of the chase.
Vinsanity.
Member
Exactly. Bullets fired at tires can easily ricochet off of rims/street/lugs etc. This isn't a movie...they were protecting the public by stopping a guy from driving his car dangerously on city streets.
JacksUsername
Member
Other thing to consider is that if the cops did this and the driver pushed forward and squeezed by their cars, he would most likely continue driving at reckless speeds with either a blown-out tire, flat tire, or on a rim, resulting in even greater loss of control and more danger to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists.
So the cops opened fire on a car with a passenger in it? Carjacking victim or did they not know?
Guess they didn't learn anything from that incident a while back where they killed a kid in the back seat.
I was watching this earlier. Speeds guy was going on surface level streets their best option was to just let him go and track down the car later.
If it was a carjacking that makes it a little harder, but if cops end up killing the car jacking victim that isn't a good look. Most likely if they just let him go you minimize risk of deadly accidents and guy would have let the passenger out at some point. Track down the car and the perp though detective work, not a car chase during rush hour.
Guess they didn't learn anything from that incident a while back where they killed a kid in the back seat.
I was watching this earlier. Speeds guy was going on surface level streets their best option was to just let him go and track down the car later.
If it was a carjacking that makes it a little harder, but if cops end up killing the car jacking victim that isn't a good look. Most likely if they just let him go you minimize risk of deadly accidents and guy would have let the passenger out at some point. Track down the car and the perp though detective work, not a car chase during rush hour.
But then the question is why not? Here in Austria we have at least two times a week weapon and aim training so why is this not possible in america?
And about trigger happy, well yeah starting to shoot a few bullets is one thing but the police man on the left almost shot his full magazine at the car so that's why i said trigger happy.
Even IF they shot all of the tires the car would continue moving forward...
We should have got you down there with a PS2 controller, would have been sorted in no time flat.
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