Posted on 03/29/2017 4:53:31 PM PDT by MtnClimber
A dramatic incident unfolded during a hostage standoff in Baltimore when a SWAT officer was told by his supervisor to walk into a room and execute a hostage taker.
The sergeant’s instructions are unequivocal. “I want you to walk in there and kill this guy,” he tells the shooter, Zachary Wein, who is a 14-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, and an eight-year veteran of the SWAT team.
“He’s high on drugs. He can kill the girl at any second,” the sergeant, who police officials declined to identify by name, continues. “I don’t see any need for less lethal.”
A bald lieutenant asks if there aren’t some other negotiating tactics available.
There are not.
The exchange is captured on body-worn cameras just seconds before Wein shoots Reno Owens in the head at 7:41 a.m. on Friday, March 24. Owens, a 39-year-old African-American man with no fixed address, was sitting on a bed with two children, aged 1 and 4 years, in his arms. He had a butcher knife with an eight-inch blade. He was talking crazy.
Police showed the video to members of the press today, but forbade audio or visual recording of it, save for a short clip of the SWAT team heading up the stairs. They will not release video publicly, according to spokesman T.J. Smith, in order to protect the children from discovering the video, years from now, and being re-traumatized.
(Excerpt) Read more at bearingarms.com ...
I was going to say that.
LOL
This appears to be one of those times when there really isn’t much choice except to shoot to kill.
Pop! range time pays off. High five.
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