2 shootings, different outcomes

Two articles in the June 29 S-R about how police handled two agitated men, with two starkly different outcomes. One man, on top of the climbing rocks at Minnehaha Park, was subdued with a bean bag round from a shot gun and lived. The other man, in Seattle, lunged first at a civilian, then at police with a sharp object (later identified as a pen) and was shot three times and killed.

I applaud the cops for using non-lethal tools to mitigate the man on the climbing rocks. While I don’t fault the Seattle cops for doing their job as they were trained to do, I would like to slap both the Seattle police chief and his training officer for not using non-lethal means to resolve a citizen in crisis. With common sense in short supply in America today, it makes one wonder what agenda some of our leaders have.

Larry R. Treffry

Spokane