[hermannr]

Going from verbal straight to deadly force... no spray? No taser? No baton? The guy is unarmed, naked, sounds like he was either on drugs and/or mentally ill. Sure - he was advancing towards the cop and challenging him to a fist-fight. But having to shoot him? Really?

Campus officer kills naked freshman at South Alabama - CNN.com

If any of us shot an unarmed naked person under the same scenario - we'd be up on Murder 2nd charges.

The cops can get away with worse than that. Review: Birk didn't have cause believe Williams a threat | Seattle 911 - A Police and Crime Blog - seattlepi.com BTW: Williams was shot in the back, and died...cost the City of Seattle $1.3M and a monument in one of their parks to Williams, but Birk was never charged.

 

[hermannr]

No calling for backup? The officer may have feared for his/her life for some reason. As we all know IF you have a firearm, and get overpowered, your problem just became life threatening. Most officers don't back down many times like this one did. If he/she felt the need to back off, they were obviously NOT capable of taking control of the situation or they would have. Non-lethal force SHOULD have been tried first for sure. Especialy against a naked guy that clearly was NOT armed. I am a big proponent of every officer going to taser,baton, or spray before ever thinking about lethal force, but I would like to hear more about exactly what happened before drawing my own opinion. Most people, officers included never WANT to kill another human being. Either this was an over reaction because of fear, or the kid kept going for the officers gun. Only two scenarios I could see with the info we have been given by the article.

I agree, it is very difficult to assertain the "what" from the news release....however there is one item that kind of sticks out...This happened in fromt of the campus police station? I don't think backup would be very far away...No?