Man killed by police after calling 911 because his car wasn’t working

Tragic that this man lost his life in this way. Your heart goes out to the family.

Having said that, this guy has some of the worst decision making I have ever seen. Either he was on drugs, suicidal, had major mental health issues, or some combination of the three. That doesn't justify what the cops did but holy cow this guy did himself no favors at any point in the process. He had like a hundred chances to push this encounter in a different direction but took none of them.

Asked if he has weapons.

Weird question for the dispatcher to ask, but I guess not totally unreasonable in the US where there are a lot of guns floating around. The guy immediately answers "I have a weapon on me", setting alarm bells off to the dispatcher. Why wouldn't he say instead what the video captions tell, that he was looking at rocks and had some geology tools? Or just say "I have a rubber mallet and a utility knife in the back but I can throw them out if you want". That tells the truth without immediately implying that you are wielding a weapon with intent to harm or brace for conflict.

Police arrive.

Dude doesn't throw the knife out of the car...even after told everyone he has a knife and would throw it out. Now the police know that they are interacting with someone who 1) lied to the dispatcher and 2) currently has a self-described "weapon". Not the ideal first step in an interaction with the cops from a practical level.

Also a lot of people are saying "The cops didn't need to show up", but pretty clearly the dude was driving a 2-ton hunk of metal erratically at night while in some kind of self-destructive or impaired mental state. It was totally justified for police to respond to the scene in some capacity (note that I am not saying that the police were justified in shooting him). Even in the "best case scenario" if this dude had gotten his car pushed and been sent on his way he still would have been a danger to himself and others behind the wheel of a car.

Police tell him to get out of the car.

He just...doesn't. For like an hour. At this point there is no way out of the situation except through the police. His car is stuck and he's surrounded by cops. There is no scenario in which he doesn't have to interact with the cops. He needs them to get his car home if that is his intention. The cops apparently think he doesn't want to get out because he would get a DUI or something. But like...he can't just sit there until the cops all leave. Sitting there and making hand gestures at the cops moves him away from his stated goals, not towards them. It's not helping him get home and it's not making the cops any more trusting of him.

Police start breach the car.

They yell at him to drop the knife like a dozen times. He doesn't. They use multiple forms of non-lethal force on him. He still doesn't drop it. Then the cops make the fatal decision to use lethal force. The courts will decide if it was justified or not.

But from the perspective of the guy in the car, you have multiple people presenting a credible threat to your life (with guns) and telling you that you can live if you take a reasonable action (drop an object that is not currently helping you in any way). The dude in the car decides that he'd rather keep holding the knife and just take what comes. What comes is exactly what the cops advertised.

So many opportunities for the events here to take a different course.

/r/CrazyFuckingVideos Thread Link - v.redd.it