Video of Police shooting man 30+ times

[Mr. Laz]

Video captures Michigan man's shooting by police
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/16/us/mic...ing/index.html

From Jason Carroll and Sheila Steffen, CNN
updated 10:12 AM EDT, Fri August 17, 2012

Man killed by cops, shot multiple times

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Milton Hall was killed in a confrontation with police in Saginaw, Michigan
• "It appeared to be a firing squad dressed in police uniforms," his mother says
• Prosecutors and state police are investigating Hall's killing
• His family says he was mentally ill and questions why the probe is taking so long

Saginaw, Michigan (CNN) -- Three days before Independence Day, Milton Hall died in a fusillade of police gunfire outside a strip mall.
He had been arguing with officers in a parking lot next to a shuttered Chinese restaurant when he was shot, in full view of passing motorists and while he was holding some sort of knife. Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael Thomas said later that the squad of police confronting him opened fire "because apparently, at this point in time, he was threatening to assault police."

Thomas' office and the Michigan State Police are investigating Hall's death. Saginaw Police Chief Gerald Cliff said Hall was "known to be an assaultive person" with "a long history" of contacts with law enforcement, "not only with police from our department but with the county."
Hall's cousin, Mike Washington, acknowledged Hall had been jailed for minor offenses like vagrancy in the past, but, "He was not violent." And Hall's mother is growing impatient with the probe and questions why police opened fire so furiously on her son, whom she said was mentally ill.

The chart blog: Mental health

"It appeared to be a firing squad dressed in police uniforms," Jewel Hall told CNN from her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. "There was another way. They did not have to kill him. He had not done anything. He was not violent. He was not a murderer. He was not a criminal."
Jewel Hall said her son had once trained as a civil right activist, been an avid reader and played football. He had lived in Saginaw for 35 years and received Social Security disability payments for a mental illness, but, "He knew his rights."

"Everybody knew him. The police knew him well," she said. "So that's another question: they knew him, so why? Why did they kill him?"

WJRT: Community questions police shooting

The July 1 shooting happened in a parking lot on West Genessee Avenue, a busy commercial strip on the north side of Saginaw. In a video purchased by CNN, shot by a motorist from across the street, the 49-year-old Hall is seen arguing with a half-dozen officers. For more than three minutes, he walks back and forth, and at one time appears to crouch in a "karate stance," according to the man who captured the scene.

Police said Hall had just had a run-in with a convenience store clerk. On the video, he tells police, "My name is Milton Hall, I just called 911. My name is Milton, and I'm p---ed off." When an officer tells him to put the knife down, he responds, "I ain't putting s--t down." He appears unimpressed by a police dog, telling officers, "Let him go. Let the motherf---ing dog go."

Finally, he turns to the left of the frame, where another officer had moved out of view a short time earlier. It's then that the police open fire with a reported 46 shots in a five-second hail of bullets.
"I'm stunned that six human beings would stand in front of one human being and fire 46 shots," Jewel Hall said. "I just don't understand that. It's a lot of pain in that because it only takes one shot, so the question is why?"

She questioned why none of the cameras in the police cars at the scene recorded the shooting -- "none of them work."

"So that's the question I have and the community has is, what's taking so long?" she said. "Why is not being transparent?"

Lou Palumbo, a former Long Island police officer, told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" that the video is "a perceptive nightmare" for a police department and could reflect a lack of training by the officers.

"This wasn't a scenario where he was discharging a weapon in their direction," he said.

But Palumbo added that the shooting may yet be determined to be justifiable. "One of the things the public has to understand, an individual wielding a knife at you at about 20 feet can be on top of you in a split second," he said. "The public doesn't know this because they don't do this for a living."

Neither state police nor the prosecutor's office would comment on the investigation. In a written statement to CNN, the state police said, "Our focus is on conducting a complete and thorough investigation, rather than a hasty one."

But Saginaw City Councilman Norman Braddock, who also has criticized the pace of the investigation, said the probe should be a "top priority."
When CNN showed Braddock the video, which he hadn't seen before, he said, "This is disturbing."

"I can see what people are traumatized at, looking at something like that," Braddock said. "We need answers."

Jewel Hall said her family is conducting its own investigation into the shooting, "and at the end of that investigation we will decide what next steps to take with our legal advisors."

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

Quick Wrap Him with a shirt.

Not sure why they shot him. I was told they wouldn't do that if it were a human. Ooops.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Donger

So, he has a knife, is refusing to put it down, moves toward the officer on the left and gets shot as a result?

Maybe I'm missing something -- where is the cop on the left? There was one over there, but he moved into position with the rest of his buddies in the group. I watched again and didn't see him heading toward any officer.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Maybe I'm missing something -- where is the cop on the left? There was one over there, but he moved into position with the rest of his buddies in the group. I watched again and didn't see him heading toward any officer.

[MIAdragon]

Originally Posted by Donger

So, he has a knife, is refusing to put it down, moves toward the officer on the left and gets shot as a result?

Yes he had a knife like object, and was clearly an immediate threat to the officers they surely had to use such force.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by MIAdragon

Yes he had a knife like object, and was clearly an immediate threat to the officers they surely had to use such force.

OK, Bugeater.

[BIG_DADDY]

Hey Laz, didn't you post that one of the cops coming to the wrong address, knocking down their doors and shooting their dogs? What ever happened in that case?

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Maybe I'm missing something -- where is the cop on the left? There was one over there, but he moved into position with the rest of his buddies in the group. I watched again and didn't see him heading toward any officer.

Maybe I didn't watch far enough but I see 4 cops standing infront and 1 off to the left. They show the picture and then the guy on the left is gone but there are still only 4 cops infront. At one point you can see a canine officer behind the silver car on the left. Then after he is shot there are cops coming out from behind the bushes on the left @ 2:00 just before it cuts out to the interviews.

[MIAdragon]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

OK, Bugeater.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Maybe I'm missing something -- where is the cop on the left? There was one over there, but he moved into position with the rest of his buddies in the group. I watched again and didn't see him heading toward any officer.

I presume that the cop that is there on the left around 1:40 moved back behind the bush thing (in the video). If you continue, you can see a white cop SUV over there.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by MIAdragon

Yes he had a knife like object, and was clearly an immediate threat to the officers they surely had to use such force.

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

OK, Bugeater.

Given his prior post (see below), I'm thinking he was being sarcastic here:

Originally Posted by MIAdragon

Wow, they ALL need to be fired and tried for murder.

[Chief Gump]

If I have a knife and 5 officers with guns drawn are yelling at me to put it down and I don't and start advancing on one of them I fully expect to be shot down.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Why did you shoot the guy 30 times ?

I ran outta bulletts.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Donger

I presume that the cop that is there on the left around 1:40 moved back behind the bush thing (in the video). If you continue, you can see a white cop SUV over there.

At the 1:58 mark or so the cops are moving in on their victim and you see two cops come out of the bushes.

I'm supremely unconvinced that they were either close enough to be sufficiently threatened to open fire, and that they had exhausted other reasonable means to diffuse the situation.

Seriously, WTF do you spend thousands of dollars training police dogs to do if you're just going to throw a hail of lead at a guy with a KNIFE. Not an Uzi, not even a ****ing pistol. A KNIFE!

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

Hey Laz, didn't you post that one of the cops coming to the wrong address, knocking down their doors and shooting their dogs? What ever happened in that case?

nope ... t'weren't me.

have no idea

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

At the 1:58 mark or so the cops are moving in on their victim and you see two cops come out of the bushes.

I'm supremely unconvinced that they were either close enough to be sufficiently threatened to open fire, and that they had exhausted other reasonable means to diffuse the situation.

Seriously, WTF do you spend thousands of dollars training police dogs to do if you're just going to throw a hail of lead at a guy with a KNIFE. Not an Uzi, not even a ****ing pistol. A KNIFE!

That dog costs more than the 30 bullets spent on him. They aren't going to release a dog on a guy with a deadly weapon threatening to use it if they release the dog.

Only 1 conclusion can be made from this... If you have a knife in your hand with 5+ officers with weapons drawn, drop the ****ing knife.