Would someone please explain this to me???

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

Preacherman

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2002
Messages
13,306
Location
Louisiana, USA
So, why not just let him jump again (for the third time, no less!)??? :confused:

From SeattlePI (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/222228_bridge29ww.html):

Friday, April 29, 2005

Distraught man shot by Seattle police

KOMO-TV STAFF

Police who went to the aid of a distraught man jumping off a bridge in Seattle ended up shooting him early this morning.

It happened about 4:15 a.m. at the First Avenue South Bridge over the Duwamish River. The man's mother had reportedly called police to say he was suicidal.

Officers were trying to calm the man when they struggled and shots were fired, police spokeswoman Debra Brown said.

His wife and child were reportedly in a car on the bridge at the time.

The man, in his 20s, was taken to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

Brown says the man jumped off the bridge twice from a low height. After surviving the first jump, he went back and jumped again before police arrived.
 
Need more details

Hard to say why the guy was shot. Perhaps the cops tried to grab him in order to prevent him from jumping, and the guy made a grab for their weapons..... :confused:
 
MORE info needed.



Man shot dead by Seattle police early this morning

By Seattle Times staff

A distraught man in his mid-20s was fatally shot by a Seattle police officer early this morning.

Around 3:30 a.m., police received several 911 calls from witnesses who reported seeing a man on the First Avenue South bridge in West Seattle, said police spokeswoman Debra Brown.

The man apparently jumped off the bridge, but the fall was not that far, Brown said. He then climbed back onto the bridge and jumped again.

When officers arrived, the man apparently hid in a brushy area. A police dog honed in on a particular spot and officers began calling for the man, Brown said.

"It's still not clear how the contact happened, but at some point, there was a struggle and he was shot," she said. The man was taken to Harborview Medical Center where he died.

The patrol officer who fired at least one shot is assigned to the department's southwest precinct, Brown said. She said officers are still trying to clarify the sequence of events, adding more information will be available later today.

There was a woman and a child in the vicinity of the incident, but police aren't sure what their relationship is to the man.

A death investigator with the King County Medical Examiner's Office said an autopsy on the man's body is scheduled for today.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002257356_webpoliceshooting29.html




Police officer fatally shoots distraught man after struggle

04/30/2005

Associated Press

A distraught man who twice jumped off a low bridge early Friday was fatally shot by a Seattle police officer after a struggle over the officer's gun, police said.

The King County medical examiner's office identified the man as Dennie Trujillo, 35. No hometown was immediately known. He was shot in the neck and trunk.

Police had responded to a 911 call about 3:30 a.m. about a man jumping off the First Avenue South Bridge over the Duwamish River.

The man had jumped twice — each time landing in some bushes a short distance below the bridge, police spokeswoman Debra Brown said.

According to an account given by police, when officers arrived, they chased the man into some brush, where he lunged at one officer and began struggling with him over his gun. The gun discharged, wounding the man.

Then "in rapid succession, the officer was able to gain some control of the gun, even though they were still wrestling over it," Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said later. "He fired, intentionally fired. A round did strike the suspect."

The man was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he died. The man apparently was unarmed, police said.

The man's mother had called police to report that he had told her he wanted to be shot by police.

The events began when the man left the scene of a hit-and-run accident involving two parked cars in the Fremont neighborhood, and called a female friend to pick him up.

The woman and her child were sitting in her car on the bridge when the shooting occurred.

The officer involved in the shooting was not immediately identified.
 
What I heard on local radio was that the jumper managed to get a pistol away from an officer and fired a shot. In the ensuing hilarity, the idiot got shot.
 
Dude, check you dictionary. Nothing about this story is anything but sad.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. In the end everyone seems to have gotten what they wanted. The idiot got himself dead, and the rest of us get to scratch one more loser off the membership roll. I feel sorry for the guy's family, and the poor dude that had to shoot him, and thats it.

There are a few bridges that provide MUCH better suicide opportunities than the one that he chose within easy driving distance, i think that the city should provide a map.
 
The AP article above certainly fills in all the blanks...even called his mother saying he wanted to be shot by a cop, happy birthday you got your wish.

I feel sorry for the guy's family and the officer he victimized through his death.
 
I'm reminded of the Suicide song by Bobby Gaylor. "Not everyone wants to be saved. Not everyone should be saved." "'But suicide is against the law.' BS. It's only against the law if you do a crappy job."
 
MaterDei and Hilarity.

MaterDei, you have to realize that some of us have rather dry senses of humor. A situation like this is so intense that no word really describes it. Thus, we use a word that causes a disconnect by being used in the opposite meaning.

Hilarity has been used in this manner before.
 
I can recall the case about 5 years back where a jumper was on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge south of D.C. This is the most heavily travelled bridge in the United States, carrying about 1/3 of the Nation's interstate trucking, and the single busiest commuter artery in this city.

The Police decided that they not only had to shut down the southern span where the jumper was standing, but the northern span as well. :banghead: They kept these bridges, and consequently Interstate 95, closed for about 5 hours. The closures resulted in the single worst traffic jam in recorded human history as Washington D.C. came to a literal standstill. It was estimated EMT's were called to assist around 3 people who suffered fatal heart attacks from stress while being stalled in traffic that day. As I recall the loser did eventually jump and was rescued from the Potomac by a Police launch.

The situiation would have been much better handled by simply ignoring the loser, or taking him out with a sniper since he was thought to have had a handgun at first.
 
What I still can't figure out is that the guy's wife and kid were parked there, watching him!!! :what:

Isn't that some kind of criminal offence, watching a guy (never mind your husband) trying to commit suicide, and not calling for help? Wouldn't any sane person try to stop him?

:confused: :uhoh: :scrutiny:
 
Isn't that some kind of criminal offence, watching a guy (never mind your husband) trying to commit suicide, and not calling for help? Wouldn't any sane person try to stop him?
Click to expand...

Not really. Good Samaritian laws pretty much state you are not obligated to save someone's life. I have some training as a medic. I won't go overboard in trying to save a person's life. I will call 911, I will explain how the person can apply a pressure bandage to themselves, I will talk to them and keep them calm, etc. However, I won't get their blood on me, nor will I improvise medical treatment if I don't have the proper kit on me. AIDS and lawsuits, Preacherman.

Depends on the circumstances, but there are many circumstances where I would not try to stop a jumper or anyone else trying to commit suicide. I'd always call 911 and report it, though.
 
The guy was crazy, and it was a woman and her kid.

I know if I was confronted by a man who was ready to kill himself, I sure wouldn't want to give him two more targets if I had a small child with me.
 
This sounds like it ended up a typical suicide by cop. What are the cops supposed to do, run away in these situations? You try everything you can not to use deadly force but the jumper didn't sound like he was reasonable. In the ideal, they would have had less lethal to use but sometimes real life doesn't cooperate. Seattle has a pretty good rep for restraint (WTO and downtown swordsman) so I doubt the cops went in with a killer attitude as implied above.
 
Why should the cops get involved at all. Do we not even own our own lives anymore. Has it come to the point where the nanny state overtly claims ownership over our very bodies?

Someone explain to my why Suicide is against the law? I just don't get it... :banghead:
 
Werewolf,

Suicide is against the law so that idiots like this are more likely to make their suicidal messes in private for their families to deal with, rather than leaving a disgusting pile of ick in public for the rest of us to deal with.

Plus, as long as it's illegal to off yourself, the cops can haul you off to the funny farm to get you some kind of psycho help if you try -- and that makes families less unhappy, because most families don't want to deal with a disgusting pile of ick, either.

Sympathy to the officer & his family, for having to deal with this. Sympathy also to the female friend & her child, who can't have been exactly thrilled with the outcome.

pax
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

U
  • Locked
Seattle CCW Incident
2 3 4
Replies
80
Views
7K
rwc
R
F
  • Locked
Ouch! Shotgun to the groin!
2
Replies
28
Views
2K
BruceRDucer
B
W
  • Locked
Man has GLOCK revolver stolen.
2
Replies
30
Views
2K
Too Many Choices!?
T
M
  • Locked
Distraught Man Dies in Exchange of Gunfire with Sheriff's Deputies
Replies
2
Views
665
Cactus
C
Q
  • Locked
Guy I worked with got shot 9 times!
Replies
13
Views
1K
rbernie
rbernie
Back
Top