Just got a press release from the Sheriff's department (and thank you to the many folks who have emailed about this, or talked to us personally at breakfast @ Fox's this morning!): a sheriff's deputy shot a white male adult suspect in an incident at the 3000 block of Highview Ave. at about 8:30 last night. No deputies were injured, and the suspect was taken to a local hospital.
According to the sheriff's department, two deputies from the Crescenta Valley station were responding to a family disturbance call on Highview. The call stated that a 17-year-old, armed with a knife, was fighting with his parents. Deputies encountered the suspect outside the residence. When they ordered the youth to drop the knife, he refused and advanced toward the deputies. The press release states, "Fearing for his safety and the safety of his partner, one deputy fired one round from his duty weapon striking the suspect in the upper torso."
The suspect was transported to a local hospital where his condition is listed as critical. Neither the deputies nor family members were injured.
(This report updates and consolidates an earlier story).
Snow said…
Hmm – wonder why the response was from Crescenta Valley? None of our guys were available?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 09:12 PM
Cin Woo said…
It is so unfortunate that the men who are paid and trained to protect our community are actually more threatening, often incompetent and trigger happy.
That boy is a result of a negligent mother who would rather shack up with her neighbor than care for her teenage son.
Of course he’s angry being bossed around by a louse who invaded his space and mom.
Someone should have taken the time to understand the situation.
Aren’t cops trained to do anything other than play with their guns??
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 09:57 PM
Snow said…
Cin Woo, can’t resist responding, especially after the shooting over on Lake and, where was it – Washington? [Lincoln & Mentone — ed.] Two weeks or so ago, where a young black man, longish criminal record & problems with violence, was killed by officers, because he was pulling a gun. Seems reasonable on the face of it, but the black community in Pasadena is very upset, and there’s concern again about Pasadena PD’s attitude.
That said, standard police procedure and regulations are that as an officer you protect yourself when you feel threatened by a deadly weapon – not just guns, but knives, cars – and you protect yourself with your gun, aiming for the biggest target (because hand guns aren’t all that accurate), so you hit the torso. That’s truly standard operating procedure.
Having said that, my daughter has defended herself in a situation where her attacker had a good chance of ending up dead if the response were standard. She works as an EMT for an ambulance company, and studies martial arts (as do I) with Rick Jeffcoat’s Scholar and Warrior Kenpo gym on Los Robles (a gym and a teacher I cannot recommend highly enough).
One day on the job, she was called to a gang shooting scene. County sheriffs and fire were already there, and she helped patch up the victim. She went back to her rig for more bandages or something, and one of the bystanders came up behind her, reaching for a hammerlock with his right hand while wielding a razor in his left. Apparently at these gang scenes where someone gets shot, people from the rival gang will hang around and attempt to stop the medics from treating the victim, sometimes by taking a hostage.
Well, my daughter used a kenpo technique called “locked wing”, and put this young gentleman, who was a fair bit larger than her, on the ground with a dislocated right shoulder, a broken nose, and a head that had been bonked against her ambulance. At this point the sheriffs came running over and piled on top of the guy, who was cussing a blue streak, fire came running over to see if my daughter was ok (she was) and they hauled the guy off in another ambulance with sheriff escort. The great likelihood is that this kid – granted, a gang-banger, violent kid – would’ve been shot and killed if my daughter hadn’t dropped him with the kenpo.
Should that be standard for police? That’s a tough call – in my opinion, they should have more arrows in their quiver that just the gun or the Mace or the club – but I don’t know that much about police work, and what they face, frankly. and while I’m proud (and very relieved) by my daughter’s ability and response, it was pretty scary, and we never have told her mother.
Monday, March 16, 2009 at 09:56 AM