[Maru]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Again, what you're saying is this is all OK if it's true that he was aiming at the other man. A distressed, confused and scared autistic person. That's who he was aiming at? In my opinion that only makes his actions worse.

Never said anything was OK.

Originally Posted by Ammi

..yeah that was my initial thought as well, Maru...(it's so annoying because the actual shot isn't in the vid and that seems quite odd..?..)...but maybe his hand with the toy truck was fleetingly in front of Charles Kinsey's leg and it was to try to shoot the gun out of his hand to remove the danger and the threat, which the officers couldn't be certain of ...this is almost like one of the situations that Mr Maru posted of a 'training scenario', isn't it ..which have made me think a lot so I'm really reluctant to try to judge it from media releases ...the thing that really concerns me though..(if true..)...is that when Charles asked the officer why he fired his weapon..?...he said that he didn't know and that should never ever be an acceptable answer...even if calls are made incorrectly and they must inevitably be sometimes..an officer should always be able to reply to 'why..?..'....hmmmm....

I don't really know what to suggest should change with regards to training except maybe to show the situations where false information can make a situation seem something it is not. Clearly they can't just go by 911 calls for all their information. An eyewitness account (someone on scene) might be a better solution, but even then you open yourself up to risk...

Ultimately though there's really no way to completely remove human error.

It might've been a good idea though for the facility to have called 911 at the time that he got out (and maybe they did for all we know ) to let them know a patient escaped and voluntarily give out information that he is unarmed. I would even suggest it should be a high priority call for law enforcement to answer the calls because the sooner they are back in a facility, the less they are a harm to themselves and the public.

Maybe at that point when more agencies have adopted units trained in mental health issues, those calls can be hopefully be answered by those specific units instead of regular officers.