Police kill man seeking help after accident

[Magis]

That's great for her, but it's still paranoid behavior.

Apparently you don't know what the word "paranoid" means, so I'll give you a definition, from Wikipedia:

Paranoia /ˌpærəˈnɔɪə/ (adjective: paranoid /ˈpærənɔɪd/) is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. (e.g. "Everyone is out to get me.")

Calling the police when a stranger knocks on your door during the night in an insistent way might seem like an overreaction depending on your perspective, and it might even be an overreaction, but it is not irrational and it is not delusional.

Violent robbery happens what 1-in-1000 times when a stranger knocks on your door in the middle of the night?

If you have actual statistics, then by all means cite them, but don't pull a random number out of your ass. But by following your logic I guess I shouldn't bother to wear a seatbelt since in all my years of driving I've never been in a car accident, right? Wearing a seatbelt may prove unnecessary, but it is still a cautious and reasonable thing to do, offering minimal drawback. Likewise, calling the police in the door-knocking situation may also prove unnecessary, but it is also a cautious and reasonable thing to do, also offering minimal drawback. Especially in this case where the person was in a car accident, the only thing that would be accomplished by entering the house would be to ask the homeowner to call the police/ambulance anyway, unless the woman inside luckily happened to be a nurse or something.

People are so fucking scared of the fringe cases these days because it's the angle the media likes to play, but I don't buy it.

The violent crime rate in Canada is 951 incidents per 100,000 population per year, and the break-and-enter rate is 768 per 100,000 per year. That's not fringe, especially given that in some neighbourhoods, the rate will be much larger than the national average. Given that the crime rate in the USA is even higher than Canada, then it's even more reasonable for the woman in the article to call the police than for Canadians.

Should I have bought a gun, triple locked my doors, and been fearful for my life and property instead of going on living?

Yeah, because that's what I'm advocating, right? Um, no. But if you're a woman alone in a house and someone knocks on your door at night, especially if the person is acting irrationally (and he did, in fact, act irrationally at least with respect to the police), then it doesn't hurt anyone to be cautious and call 911. Just think about the situation as it unfolded. This guy, if the story is true, spontaneously charged the police for no reason. Is that the kind of person you think should be invited into the house of a solitary woman?

Have you thought maybe he was just in an auto accident? It's very possible he suffered some sort of head injury and that could explain any weird behaviors he displayed? I've seen people with what looks like minor head injuries act quite oddly.

Yes, he could have been acting crazy as a result of the accident alone, in which case I don't see how that's any better than being on drugs as far as the woman's safety is concerned. But the reason why I thought of drugs/alcohol specifically was the way he immediately acting hostile to the police, perhaps because he knew they'd lock him up for DUI.

[ThatOneCatC]

I have had a few attempted break-ins and two successful burglaries in my home(s) over the course of my life. The attempted ones were most likely stopped by the fact I had an imposing looking dog who alerted the thieves to her presence. The successful ones were done while I was away at work or on vacation. In the case of the one while I was on vacation, my neighbor (a night before my place was robbed) had a stranger knock on her door in the evening asking for monetary assistance due to a car running out of fuel. We both felt that this individual was the thief and he was casing the place to find out if anyone was there. While I do not necessarily abide by the fact that all people who knock at night have criminal intent, I would definitely call the authorities should the individual seem "off" somehow. Such as acting strange or excitable due to a recent (unknown to me) accident. I also lock my door every night with a deadbolt and a chain. The chain is there to keep my four year old who knows how to use the deadbolt from potentially slipping out of the house and is also locked when I am at home during the day.

I do not feel I am being paranoid, just cautious.

[TheFeniX]

Hilarity at questioning the mind-set of a woman who called police on someone continuously knocking on her door at 2 in the morning. What else was she going to do? If the guy was just looking for help, what help could she give him that emergency services couldn't?

The police are the ones who need to know how to handle arriving at a situation with little or inaccurate information. Not a woman being woken up in the middle of the night by someone she doesn't know. Calling her paranoid really makes you out to be an asshole.

[Agent Fisher]

In my neck of the woods, those who want to break in don't knock.

Around mine, it's actually a pretty common tactic. You knock, wait a few minutes for an answer. You don't hear any, you're good to go, just force the door, or window and bam, you're in the house.

[cosmicalstorm]

I won't comment on the shooting itself, its being investigated, leave it at that. However, someone you don't know simply knocking on your front door is cause for calling the police? Talk about an insane over reaction.

Easy to judge with the benefit of hindsight. He might aswell have been a rapist on crack. The cops could have handled it better though.

So you recommend calling the cops if an unkown person knocks on your door? A lot of people would have to call the cops all the time which would drain absurd amounts of police resources.

Yeah because an unknown man acting strange banging on your door at night happens all the time.

[Broomstick]

Why are we focusing so much on the woman? She was frightened, whether she should have been or not, and did was a little old lady alone in the house at night and frightened should do - she called for help.

What about the police officer who shot the guy 10 times? While I understand a large man of any ethnicity can look dangerous, especially if he is "charging" you at a run, I question if the situation truly called for a lethal level of force. The fact that same officer is now facing voluntary manslaughter charges implies the authorities are also questioning the situation.

[LadyTevar]

I'm not focusing on the cop because it's clear the police are taking this seriously and investigating without trying to block or cover ass.

[Gaidin]

Why are we focusing so much on the woman? She was frightened, whether she should have been or not, and did was a little old lady alone in the house at night and frightened should do - she called for help.

The impression I'm getting is that, there's what LadyTevar said, but that the accidental misinformation from that call is what led to their assumptions about the man's behavior and led to how they treated the situation to start, and reasonably so. As I understand the situation from the stories I've read his charges arise from inappropriate escalation of force.

[Highlord Laan]

I'm not focusing on the cop because it's clear the police are taking this seriously and investigating without trying to block or cover ass.

I give it a week.

[RogueIce]

I'm not focusing on the cop because it's clear the police are taking this seriously and investigating without trying to block or cover ass.

I give it a week.

You did read the part where the detectives from his own department charged the officer with voluntary manslaughter, right?

[salm]

Yeah because an unknown man acting strange banging on your door at night happens all the time.

That´s not the information we had at the time you recommended calling the police. Our exchange was immediately after the OP in which we got the information that the guy "knocked on a door early in the morning". There´s nothing about strange behavior, the night or banging.

[cosmicalstorm]

Actually that comment goes for the duration of the day too. Google "Homeowner assaulted" to see why the average person would be cautious about this.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=homeowner+assaulted

[salm]

So you really think that you should call the cops if an unknown person knocks on you door.
If that is the case, how do you suggest making first contact?

[Thanas]

Actually that comment goes for the duration of the day too. Google "Homeowner assaulted" to see why the average person would be cautious about this.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=homeowner+assaulted

Are you for real? I mean, you are not a troll, are you? How do you exist in the real world?

[Grumman]

So you really think that you should call the cops if an unknown person knocks on you door.
If that is the case, how do you suggest making first contact?

I would suggest making first contact at a more reasonable hour than 2:30 in the morning, but that's just me. Ferrell did have a good reason for not waiting until a more reasonable hour, but neither the woman nor the police knew about the accident until afterwards.

[salm]

So you really think that you should call the cops if an unknown person knocks on you door.
If that is the case, how do you suggest making first contact?

I would suggest making first contact at a more reasonable hour than 2:30 in the morning, but that's just me. Ferrell did have a good reason for not waiting until a more reasonable hour, but neither the woman nor the police knew about the accident until afterwards.

So your last post was wrong?

[AniThyng]

So you really think that you should call the cops if an unknown person knocks on you door.
If that is the case, how do you suggest making first contact?

I would suggest making first contact at a more reasonable hour than 2:30 in the morning, but that's just me. Ferrell did have a good reason for not waiting until a more reasonable hour, but neither the woman nor the police knew about the accident until afterwards.

Logically I would make first contact from a safe distance - or speak through the door or something. At least in my country though houses generally have a gate or additional grill so you don't need to allow anyone in to speak to them.

[salm]

Ah... sorry, my last post makes no sense. I didn´t look at the name and mistook Grumman for Cosmicalstorm.

[Thanas]

So you really think that you should call the cops if an unknown person knocks on you door.
If that is the case, how do you suggest making first contact?

I would suggest making first contact at a more reasonable hour than 2:30 in the morning, but that's just me. Ferrell did have a good reason for not waiting until a more reasonable hour, but neither the woman nor the police knew about the accident until afterwards.

You are replying to a statement which was a reply to a statement which said "Call the cops whenever someone unknown knocks on your door because of home invasions".

[salm]

So you really think that you should call the cops if an unknown person knocks on you door.
If that is the case, how do you suggest making first contact?

I would suggest making first contact at a more reasonable hour than 2:30 in the morning, but that's just me. Ferrell did have a good reason for not waiting until a more reasonable hour, but neither the woman nor the police knew about the accident until afterwards.

Logically I would make first contact from a safe distance - or speak through the door or something. At least in my country though houses generally have a gate or additional grill so you don't need to allow anyone in to speak to them.

The person on the inside is not the one making first contact. The person on the outside is. How do you suggest the person on the outside to behave if knocking on a door is "wrong"?

[Broomstick]

Let's see... I've lived in St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, and Gary... all cities that have at one time or the other held the distinctions of being "murder capital of the US". How would I make "first contact"? I would go knock on the door...

Now, down where the in-laws live, the convention is to stand just outside the yard gate and holler... but by then the porch dogs will have noticed you. You can knock on the front door... but generally only guv'mint people and the undertaker does that so your reception is, in general, quite chilly with that method.

If you get a reply through the door (and most urban doors in the US have a peephole, a double-door, or something that allows you to see/speak with someone outside without requiring full opening or permitting entry) to "go away!" or some such and you need help yell "Please call 911 for me!" which is not something your typical thief would request.

While the old lady's choice to call the police for someone knocking on her door does seem over the top it should not result in tragedy. Old people can be frail, disabled, or mentally less than perfect, and certainly being fearful isn't unusual, either. I don't see her call 911 as inherently unreasonable. I don't know exactly what she said.

I think the question I'm most interested in having answered is how the deceased was actually acting, and if he might have possibly had a head injury from the car accident. Head injuries can make people highly irrational and behavior bizarre. It can make a person unable to talk coherently.

[cosmicalstorm]

Actually that comment goes for the duration of the day too. Google "Homeowner assaulted" to see why the average person would be cautious about this.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=homeowner+assaulted

Are you for real? I mean, you are not a troll, are you? How do you exist in the real world?

Why is it a troll opinion that you be cautious when unknown people knock on your door? Especially if they act weird, are bloody and so on. I have literally been assaulted by a man who suffered a psychosis when I opened my door early morning, and these cases are beloved by local news-stations giving people the impression that they are far more common. I fail to see why there is a focus on why she called the police. Did she have a time machine at hand?

[Kamakazie Sith]

Source

It was about 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning when Sarah McCartney heard a banging at her front door. The young mother, alone with her 1-year-old son, rushed to the door thinking that something might have happened to her husband. But the man standing there wasn’t her husband, but a young black man.
McCartney quickly shut the door and called 911 to report an attempted robbery.

“I need help. There’s a guy breaking into my front door, he’s trying to kick it down,” McCartney is heard pleading through tears on a recording of the 911 call released by WCNC.com, an NBC affiliate in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday. She told the dispatcher that her husband works nights and that he has guns at home but that she couldn’t find any.
“Oh my God,” McCartney says over and over. “He’s in the front yard yelling.”
“I need help,” she said, crying.

When McCartney saw the police outside of her home, she’s heard on the 911 tape saying, “Oh, please let them get him.”
They did.
Jonathan Ferrell, 24, was killed by police in a bizarre series of events that began with a car crash along a rural stretch of road near McCartney’s home, and ended not long after he dragged himself from the wreckage and found himself on her doorstep seeking help.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say that three officers responding to McCartney’s 911 call arrived at her home and found Ferrell nearby. When Ferrell saw the officers he advanced or ran toward them, police say, and one of the officers shot him with a Taser. When that didn’t stop him, Officer Randall Kerrick pulled out his gun and fired 12 shots at Ferrell, hitting him with 10.
Police say that Ferrell was unarmed at the time of the shooting and was no robber at all–just someone looking for help at the the first house he saw.
Kerrick, 27, has been charged with voluntary manslaughter and was arraigned on Tuesday. Kerrick’s defense attorneys said he was an innocent man.
“His actions were justified on the night in question,” said defense attorney Michael Greene, according to the Associated Press.

A probable cause hearing was set for October 7.
Police say what caused the crash was not immediately clear, and pending toxicology results, there is no indication that alcohol was involved. The two other responding officers, Thornell Little and Adam Neal, have been placed on paid administrative leave.
The killing outraged Ferrell’s family and local civil rights groups.

“This was a brutal killing and execution of Jonathan Ferrell,” said the Rev. Kojo Nantambu, head of the Charlotte NAACP, in statement released on Tuesday afternoon. “There is no evidence that shows Jonathan Ferrell should have been shot at all, but for Officer Kerrick to shoot 12 times and striking Mr. Ferrell 10 times indicates more than a reflex, it smells more of hatred and rage, which shows that Mr. Kerrick was predisposed in killing a Black Man and did so with extreme prejudice.”
Nantambu said he will lobby for Kerrick to be charged with murder.

The North Carolina chapter of the ACLU has called for the city to strengthen its citizens review board, which has never ruled against the department, and for all video footage recorded from the scene to be released.
The shooting comes just months after a national conversation on racial profiling, stereotypes and the criminal justice system was sparked by the trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman’s acquittal ignited anger across the country, particularly among people who say minorities and black men in particular are targeted with little provocation other than the color of their skin.

“The officer is white, Mr. Ferrell is black,” Chris Chestnut, the Ferrell family’s attorney, said during a press conference with Ferrell’s family on Monday. “I think this is poor decision making. I think this is more of a reflection of where we are as a country. That perhaps we need to stop, pause, regardless of race and become more sympathetic to each other. We’re entertaining saving Syria , perhaps we need to save ourselves. Let’s look inward first.”

Ferrell’s family described him as an “everyday American” and a hard worker who always put family first.
Georgia Ferrell, Ferrell’s mother, said Officer Kerrick “took a piece of my heart that I can never put back.”
“He took my son from me, but I can only stand here and tell you that I believe God is the one listening to me right now and God would want me to forgive,” she told reporters. “If I don’t forgive, it will be on me forever.”
“It saddens me and my family that he had to be a person to go through something like this at such an age, and as such an innocent person,” Ferrell’s brother, Willie Ferrell, said. “He was just an amazing person.”
“He was trying to live the American dream,” he said.

Ferrell had moved from Florida to Charlotte, N.C., about a year ago to be with his fiancée, his high school sweetheart. The couple was building a life together and Ferrell, who had played college football for Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, took various retail jobs to support their plans.
“This is an honest, everyday, hardworking American with ambition and dreams who had them snuffed out,” Chestnut, the family’s lawyer, said during a press conference on Monday. “He’s engaged to be married, he has a dog and a cat, he was driving a Toyota Camry, he survived an accident, had 3.7 GPA, a chemistry major. This is not someone who posed a threat to the officers or anyone else, this is an everyday American.”

Ferrell’s mother said she last talked with her son on Friday afternoon, the day before he was killed. He was in good spirits, she said. He was saving money with the hopes of continuing his college education.
“Right now I’m somewhat numb,” she said. “I want my son to bury me, I do not want to bury him.”
Around 2 a.m. on Saturday Ferrell dropped off a friend in a quiet Charlotte neighborhood, police said. At some point his car veered off the road. The vehicle was so contorted from the crash that he had to kick out the rear window to escape. Police say he staggered from the embankment and from the thicket of brush and woods and made his way to Reedy Creek Road. He stumbled up to the first house he saw and banged on the door.
On the other side was Sarah McCartney, who slammed the door shut and called 911.
“I feared for my life and my son’s life,” McCartney, still visibly shaken, told NBC on Tuesday.

As I suspected. She reported it to the police as a burglary in progress. Hell, it may have even been classified as a home invasion. Priority wise they are both classified as highest priority and the response protocol calls for a multiple officer response, take the suspect into custody, begin interviews.

[Kamakazie Sith]

EDIT - Double post, please delete.

[madd0ct0r]

Source

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say that three officers responding to McCartney’s 911 call arrived at her home and found Ferrell nearby. When Ferrell saw the officers he advanced or ran toward them, police say, and one of the officers shot him with a Taser. When that didn’t stop him, Officer Randall Kerrick pulled out his gun and fired 12 shots at Ferrell, hitting him with 10.
Police say that Ferrell was unarmed at the time of the shooting and was no robber at all–just someone looking for help at the the first house he saw.

It might just be a different journalist, but they seem to be rowing back on the 'advanced' OR ran towards them'
I guess he was probaly shouting too, something ' Officer's help! Accident!'