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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrigger-Happy Cops Face Pushback After Slew Of Shootings Of The Mentally Disturbed
By Karen McVeigh, The Guardian
Wednesday, October 23, 2013 11:58 EDT
The last words Elsa Cruz heard her husband say, in response to police officers banging on his locked front door, were: Dont knock on my door, its against my will.
Shell never forget what came next.
I heard, bluh, bluh, bluh, the sound of the tool as they broke the door down. There was silence, then a loud bang.
The shot hit her husband Samuel, a Puerto Rican artist living in New Rochelle, New York, in the chest and left him dying in a pool of blood in their home.
The encounter that led to the shooting, which happened in May of this year, began when Cruz, 55, called 911 to try to get medical help for her husband, who had become agitated. When police arrived, she told them that he had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but did not have a weapon. She begged them to allow her to talk to him, but they refused and told her to stay away. She sought refuge in a neighbours apartment below the one she shared with her husband, within earshot of the unfolding tragedy.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/23/trigger-happy-cops-face-pushback-after-slew-of-shootings-of-the-mentally-disturbed/
Rex
(65,616 posts)Looks like they went with bullets. I feel for the lady, never call the cops to help out with someone mentally ill. They will just end up dead on their floor in a large pool of their own blood.
Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)Sadly.
Mojo Electro
(362 posts)if I had some kind of problem, only under the most dire circumstances would I choose to involve the police. One sure fire way to make a bad situation worse is to add cops to the mix. It's a good way to turn what could be just a difficult situation into an outright tragedy.
That cop probably slept like a baby that night.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Or was it just another day of the week?