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While responding to a woman's call for help in a dispute with her boyfriend, a police officer ultimately fatally shot the man who refused to drop a large knife.
The incident occurred at an apartment building on East 83rd Street on the Upper East Side. A woman had flagged down a patrol car; according to police, the woman said "she and her boyfriend had been drinking, but he had become abusive." The police went to the apartment and found the boyfriend who would not drop the weapon and instead allegedly lunged at them.
The boyfriend was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. This was an on-duty police shooting; there have been a number of off-duty law enforcement officers shooting people threatening them with weapons this past week.
Update: The AP has some more details. A cab driver actually flagged down the cops--the girlfriend had just been punched by the boyfriend after they had gone to a bar. The cops and girlfriend went back to the apartment for her to get some of her belongings.
[Spencer] Parris at first refused to open the door. Moments later, police said, he burst out wearing a T-shirt and boxer shorts, holding a 13-inch knife over his head and yelling, "I'm going to kill you."Additionally, the girlfriend did tell police Parris "suffered from bipolar disorder and had previously threatened suicide." The NYPD considers this a justified shooting.One of the officers pulled the girlfriend into a stairwell while the other drew his gun and ordered Parris to drop the knife, police said. The man kept advancing, backing the officer into the end of a narrow hallway, police said.
Parris came within about three feet of the officer when he fired a single shot into the victim's chest.
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Maybe they should start rolling out more Tasers. This is one incident where the end result didn't have to end in the death of the perpertrator.
Agreed. Or just shoot him in the foot or leg.
that's yorkville, no?
oh yeah and don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
Tasers endanger police officers confronting armed perpetrators as they can only be fired once. If you miss or the charge doesn't affect the target, you're dead or grievously injured. The survival of the victim typically results in lawsuits. Tasers are simply not suitable for subduing people who are armed. They are really only useful for subduing the disturbed and the unarmed.
Anyway, if you threaten someone with deadly force, you should expect they will attempt to kill you first. Anything else is unnatural and excessively idealistic.
@#2:
Police do not shot "to wound."
No law enforcement agency in the US, from NYPD to Mayberry PD shoots to wound.
that's right, barney fife aims for your fuckin' face.
time to start thinking about picking up some kevlar.
So, the cops are supposed to wait to find out if this guy is going to stab to wound or stab to kill? Or perhaps his girlfriend should have waited until he stabbed her a few times before flagging down a cop. Hey, if you lunge at cop with a weapon, you are gonna get shot.
No, if you lunge at a cop with a weapon you are going to be killed.
DON'T TASE ME BRO!!!
How about, not doing the wrong thing to wind up getting yourself shot... I know, how about not abusing a woman... Interesting thought...
no law enforcement agent on earth is trained to shoot-to-wound. they're trained to hit the largest part of the body, the chest/stomach area.
They shoot to stop the perp. Sometimes that means hitting the leg but the training is to aim for center body mass and let the hydrostatic shock do the rest. Many live, some die. You rarely hear about the ones that live.
Please office, allow this bro to go untased.
Sorry to say, it sounds like this guy was either NOT in his right mind or wanted to commit Suicide by cop...
This is one incident where the end result didn't have to end in the death of the perpertrator.
Why not? This guy was obviously dangerous and wanted to kill someone, either his girlfriend or himself. Sounds like a justified homicide to me.
i would hardly call this a homicide.
Suicide by cop. He got his wish.
Homicide simply means a person being killed by another. It's a value-neutral term and not necessarily criminal.
I think for some people the police can do no right and these same people have serious problems assigning responsibilities for actions. If the officer was indeed backed in a corner with three feet of clearance from a knife wielding man (no little knife either, mind you) then yes, shoot. I challenge you people to be backed into a corner with a knife-wielding man coming down on you and see if you have the presence of mind in the situation to aim at the leg or arm, more difficult targets to hit.
This is a textbook good shoot. This is also a textbook situation where a Taser is a really bad idea. So you're backed into a narrow hallway, the guy is 3 feet away from you, and you shoot him with a Taser. Oops, one of the darts didn't penetrate his clothing. You are now utterly and totally fucked because at 3' he can be on you with the knife before you can even get your gun out of the holster.
In fact, the officer showed *remarkable* restraint in letting the guy get that close. Studies have shown and training now reflects that if a badguy with a blade is within 21 feet of you, he can be on you and attacking before you can incapacitate him with a handgun. If he happens to be running or lunging toward you when you shoot him, he may still get a few good stabs in before he becomes incapacitated as unless you get really lucky and nail him right between the eyes or the heart, the effect on the badguy's system will not be instantaneous like in the movies. It's gonna take a little while until he loses enough blood to pass out or die, and if he's motivated, he's going to keep fighting until he does.
This officer's shot to the chest must have been a good one if he only needed to shoot him once. If he happened to get the guy in the aorta or heart then one shot was all he needed.
Anyone who would paint this scenario as a situation where a Taser would be inappropriate is grossly misinformed. I don't mean that in an insulting way, I just mean that most people don't know any more about this kind of stuff than what they see in the media or in movies and that's only because that's the only way most people will ever be exposed to this kind of thing. Unfortunately, most of the stuff you will see in the media and the movies about ballistics and about the effects of gunshot trauma on the body are completely wrong and it leads to unrealistic expectations among the public about what police can and should do in these types of situations.
There are reasons why no law enforcement agencies teach "shoot to wound" BS like shooting someone in the hand/leg/arm, etc. First of all, that's not going to incapacitate someone quickly enough to resolve the threat. You shoot this guy in the foot, so what? If he's motivated, he's going to keep coming. You're wasting time shooting for his foot and he's getting closer and closer. You don't have that kind of time to waste.
Second is that the extremities are very very hard targets to hit under the best of circumstances, let alone in a tense situation where the adrenaline is pumping (causing some reduction in fine motor skills) and you have to worry about any rounds that miss this guy going into neighboring apartments. People can move their extremities around very quickly relative to their core. LE personnel are taught to shoot at what's called "center mass" because it's a big target, it's easier to hit under stress, it doesn't move around a lot, and it will cause incapacitation a lot more quickly, thus resolving the threat without undue risk to the officer or innocent bystanders. If this officer had shot at the guy's foot and missed, and the round went through the floor into the apartment below and hit someone, you'd all be screaming bloody murder about how the officer should be thrown in prison. You can't have it both ways. People who have never shot a handgun always seem to have unrealistic expectations of how accurately a trained person can shoot with one.
Firearms training for police is not taught in terms of "shoot to kill" but it is taught in terms of shoot to stop the threat. You shoot as much as it takes to stop the threat and that's it. If you shoot the guy once and he gives up, then great. You stop shooting and arrest the guy. If you have to shoot the guy 10 times because he won't give up no matter what and it takes 10 rounds to finally incapacitate him (either through loss of consciousness or death) then that's what you've got to do. If you shoot the guy once and it just so happens he dies, well sometimes those are the breaks. To avoid that situation, it's best not to advance upon a police officer with a 13" knife. If you don't want to get shot, drop the knife. If you don't drop the knife, then you take your chances with whether you will live or die from what comes next.
Finally, the fact the guy was bipolar doesn't really mean anything in this context. A guy with bipolar disorder will kill you just as dead as a guy who doesn't have bipolar disorder. Because of that, the police reaction cannot reasonably be expected to be any different one way or the other.
Homicide simply means a person being killed by another. It's a value-neutral term and not necessarily criminal.
True, but in our society it's used as a term for murder by a criminal, which the cop is not.
The cops did the right thing here it seems. A taser seems like a stupid idea against someone with a weapon.
Hogarty's right. Homicide is one of the categories of "manner of death".
Homicide: Taking of a life by another
Suicide: Taking of one's own life.
Accident: "Hey, watch this!"
Natural causes: By, Granny.
Therapeautic Misadvanture: Whoops!
Cause of death is the physical/chemical mechanism.
Culpability/Justification of Category 1 is whether the Homicide violates statute, in this case use of Deadly Physical Force. Differs for LEO's or civilians, "Reason to Believe", etc.
Tasers suck in this situation. And if the guy was Tased, @ that range, he still could've shivved the cop. Or, (wait for the Tox), if he went into card/resp arrest & boxed, people would be screaming they should have used bubble wrap or something.
And to anyone who thinks someone should be shot in the leg while attacking, it's only safe and effective using an RPG from well outside the blast radius.
which is better, the USPSA or IDPA.
both shoot for COM.
still shouldn't bring a knife to a gunfight.
bring guns to a gunfight, plenty of them, bring yours, bring your neighbors, bring your friend's.
sj,
**Great** post.
jesus this happened a block away. Had no idea til i read this website
Suicide by cop no doubt about
it, it's getting somewhat common
these days.
I knew Spencer Parris very well and his death truly could have been avoided. Knowing more details about his tragedy, I can say that Officer Micah Adler could have better assessed the situation before arriving at the apt. Knowing that a call was never placed he failed to ask sufficient questions. If in fact he felt his life was threatened he could have fired a shot elsewhere instead of firing his gun ultimately killing him. Apparently the NYPD justified Spencer's death because it was under training guidelines? How many deaths could have been avoided if this "training" was changed. The media harshly portrayed him in a way that was unjust to his memory and his character. He had a good heart and was loved by so many including myself. He was going through a tough time and in did not deserve this. I know my life was forever changed with his passing and I know he is resting in peace.