cops kill woman in costco in Loudoun Co. (how much, live)

[r small]

What was the story with the taser? Was it defective? Did it not give off the charge? Did the woman just shrug off the effects? Wouldn't hitting her again with a second taser make sense before shooting her? Why not try pepper spray? Was five rounds of 9mm necessary to stop this obviously mentally ill woman? Was this shooting justified? Will this shooting be white-washed and swept under the rug?

[jillybean720]

We were talking about this this morning (my office is in Sterling, and we just recently relocated from being within walking distance of this Costco). Apparently, the ends of the taser got caught in her clothing or something, so it didn't work. Even without another taser handy, I would think cops are trained to be able to control a suspect without shooting her to death.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by r small

What was the story with the taser? Was it defective? Did it not give off the charge? Did the woman just shrug off the effects? Wouldn't hitting her again with a second taser make sense before shooting her? Why not try pepper spray? Was five rounds of 9mm necessary to stop this obviously mentally ill woman? Was this shooting justified? Will this shooting be white-washed and swept under the rug?

She was advancing on the officers with a dangerous weapon with the obvious intent to harm. The TASER didn't stop her. Why should they think a second one would? How many options must they try before defending their own lives?

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by r small

obviously mentally ill woman

Obviously? According to whom? From the officer's viewpoint, she could have just been a very angry woman with a weapon threatening harm, who would not put the weapon down.

Police officers deal with that type of situation all of the time, and they are trained to protect themselves.


(I really don't know why this particular subject is getting me fired up, as I don't know any police officers personally. But I'm really taking offense to the insinuations that the police are at fault here.)

[FCNova]

It's really hard to speculate on things like this with just partial details. Since I didn't see it go down I'm withholding judgement but a damn shame someone lost their life.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by r small

What was the story with the taser? Was it defective? Did it not give off the charge? Did the woman just shrug off the effects? Wouldn't hitting her again with a second taser make sense before shooting her? Why not try pepper spray? Was five rounds of 9mm necessary to stop this obviously mentally ill woman? Was this shooting justified? Will this shooting be white-washed and swept under the rug?

Your lack of knowledge of law enforcement is glaring and it would appear you have made up your mind already. I haven't seen much coverage yet and don't know the particulars, But it would appear, based on the OP, that the Tazer was ineffective or never used. But maybe the OP would have used verbal judo and just diffused the situation with no injuries.
The use of a Tazer against an advancing armed subject, being female matters not, would be suicidal for the officer unless he had a second officer present who could have his firearm out and at the ready. Even then depending on the circumstances the use of deadly force may be required. The number of rounds used by the officers also matters not. Once you make the decision to shoot you keep shooting until the threat stops. We don't know here what happened. In the officers training it is drilled in your head that age, gender, etc cannot be a factor for the officer facing a deadly force situation.
And one need only look at the history of the Loudoun Co Sheriff's Office to see they no NOT have a history of using

[NC211]

My only question in this is: 5 rounds? I've been to Costco. I've never seen BigFoot handing out free pizza cubes before. If anything, 2 (one for each leg) would stop and drop just about anything long enough for the medics to come and keep the person alive. 5, seems like a decision to bypass "stop" and go straight to "dead". But, I am only speculating here, I don't know the whole story either. I don't think I'll be eating Costco pizza though for a while, just in case those mushrooms aren't exactly the right kind, if you catch my drift..

[Caladium]

Don't know enough details yet to form an opinion... except for the opinion that a few key details seem to be missing in this story.

[sullyguy]

It seems at best "curious" without any other information - we know some worker started behaving really strangely, so much so that her boss(es) actually called the cops rather than simply handling it themselves - THAT'S curious. Then we have SOME sort of words about a tazer weapon "not working" - THAT'S curious. Then, of course, we know that the other officer started firing his/her handgun and managed to stop the woman as well as shoot his/her own partner - THAT'S curious (like...uh...did the shooting officer have his/her eyes closed?).

We need a lot more info, though.

[however, isn't it the Loudoun Sherriff's office that has the POOR reputation? Loudoun County doesn't have a regular police department, right? I wonder how much training their deputies get - and how much training an officer needs to interact with a crazy armed with a blade rather than a gun]

[newnewsmama]

Originally Posted by spencgr

She was advancing on the officers with a dangerous weapon with the obvious intent to harm. The TASER didn't stop her. Why should they think a second one would? How many options must they try before defending their own lives?

Because this is a human life. A mentally ill person is still a person. A normal angry person does not wave a knife unprivoked at work toward police officers. In most of the countries of the world, this woman will not be shot to death. Instead of shooting her five times, they could shoot her in the leg.