Family of Purcellville [Va] teen killed by police demands answers

WTTG FOX 5 DC ^ | May 26, 2014 | Sherri Ly

[deks]

PURCELLVILLE, Va. -
The family of a Purcellville teen killed by police want answers. They believe he didn't have to die. Police were called for help Saturday afternoon because 17-year-old Christian Sierra was suicidal. Instead, an officer shot him dead.

His parents say he was crying out for help and that police were too quick to shoot and kill.

His family said Christian was depressed, but not violent. He was at a friend's house and became suicidal. So they called 911 for help.

When Purcellville police arrived, he was armed with a knife. According to a witness, Christian came around the corner followed by a friend begging him to drop the knife. He had already harmed himself.

The witness heard him say, "I don't want to live anymore." Christian collapsed on the ground and then got up and turned toward police. That's when he was shot.

"The four gunshots, it's just too much. Excessive. Excessive. Why four?" asked Christian's mother.

Police say Christian lunged at the officer with the knife. Virginia State Police are investigating.

[bicyclerepair]

Police radio is now digital and skips from frequency to frequency so you can’t listen.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

That is not true.....it is digital but scanners still pick up most frequencies.

[VerySadAmerican]

Isn’t that convenient. So the cops now act in total secrecy. I would think that could be changed. But, there are just as many power hungry corrupt judges as there are cops.

There should be cameras from every angle on every cop and on every cop car. They’ve got cameras all over the place so why not make them work FOR us instead of against us. There needs to be a law that every camera “movie” is available to the public at the end of each shift. I guarantee you that if you do something wrong the cops will have it on tape or whatever the hell digital thing they’re “on” today.

Unfortunately, the people in office today are so damned naive they don’t know what computers can do. I saw Mike Rogers say that Snowden is saying they’re doing things that computers aren’t capable of doing. With people like that pulling for us, we’re screwed.

[kiryandil]

"The four gunshots, it's just too much. Excessive. Excessive. Why four?" asked Christian's mother.

There were three dogs behind him?

[kiryandil]

"They're supposed to come to help and stop the suicide and they came and killed him," said Natalie Moriarty, Christian's aunt.

It's all about the CONFRONTATION, Natalie.

Betcha the Farce Enlawment Orifice (FEO) had a Happy Ending in his dress blues...

[kiryandil]

The cops aren’t trained to say, “Aww, you’re suicidal?...you get one free shot.”

Neat trick, that - was it a semi-automatic knife? 10-shot?

[Trod Upon]

Seems odd they didn’t just taze him before opting to kill him.

[kiryandil]

I don’t blame the cops. Unless the spaces in that house were like Downton Abbey, there was no time for any fancy moves. It was shoot or be stabbed.

They could have tried NOT "confronting" the perforated guy. They're not superheroes who need to "confront" the peasantry.

[kiryandil]

Nuther peasant corpse on aisle 3...

[null and void]

JBT Ping list

[TADSLOS]

Why tase when four rounds of .40 will do? /s

[Doomonyou]

Remember this? Back when the police cared about human life? Sniper shoots gun out of suicidal man?

Maybe all the shoot to kill incidents are due to limited budgets and not wanting to pay overtime for talking the poor bastard down. Internal reviews justify the shoot and the cop gets a paid vacation.

Just sayin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHvWaviIXsk

[Salamander]

Rumor is that he was wearing this shirt.

It all makes sense, now.

[Doomonyou]

Look at post 32. Might qualify for the NJCT List!

If you don't I'll sell your soul to the NSA. And the local police union in your area. Have a nice day. :)

[Smokin' Joe]

Moral of the story: if your loved one is suicidal, don’t call the police. It’s well documented that your loved one will almost certainly be shot in such cases.

You may end up enabling the suicide. "Suicide by cop" used to be the out for those who thought they wanted to go but were not prepared to do the deed themselves.

[bamahead]

Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

[null and void]

Eh? You’re already on the list.

[Doomonyou]

Eh? You’re already on the list.

I know I'm on the list, that was just a shameless plea that my comment was worthy.

(OK. It's not worthy!)

[deks]

Great video. . .

Sniper shoots gun out of suicidal man's hand

...Man, unhurt, says "That was a great shot."

Click here for short video at >> YouTube

[null and void]

Ah! Now it makes sense. Yes, your comment was worthy!