"A Boulder (Colorado) police officer shot and killed a University of Colorado student believed to be high on LSD late Monday, after the man attacked residents with a knife, then confronted police with a hammer while naked, officials said.
Police said the suspect — identified by the coroner as Samuel Forgy, 22 — climbed onto a railing at the 19th Street apartment complex as if he was going to jump down on the officers on the landing below him.
Police said an officer tried unsuccessfully to use a Taser on Forgy before he was fatally shot by a second officer, but a neighbor who witnessed the confrontation said the stun gun and the handgun were fired almost simultaneously.
"There was a crackle and then 'pop, pop, pop,'" neighbor Nikki Larsen said Tuesday morning. "One after the other. It was less than a second. In an instant of time, Taser — then three gunshots."
CU officials confirmed Forgy was a student on the Boulder campus, where he was majoring in applied mathematics. He transferred to CU last year from the Community College of Denver, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Bouler police said they were originally called to the scene after a resident of an apartment at 1841 19th St. phoned 911 shortly after 10:30 p.m. Monday to report that a man was acting erratically and was outside the apartment, screaming.
When officers arrived, police said, they found a 23-year-old victim with cuts to his face. The man suffered multiple knife wounds, including a 6-inch cut to his forehead and a bite on his hand, police said." – from the Boulder Colorado newspaper, The Daily Camera, 7/28/15
That bad things happen unexpectedly, anywhere is not news. What is interesting as well in this sordid tale are the opinions and observations of people who were nearby or who head about this incident and have made their comments on it.
Note the neighbor who claimed that the stun gun [sic] and the handgun were fired "almost simultaneously". Less than a second. An instant of time.
Most probably not. Eye witness (or ear witness, in this case) testimony has been proven notoriously inaccurate. People are not video or audio recorders. Their brain interprets what they see and hear, and often, distorts or even creates memories of events, especially traumatic events. What is apparent is that there was the sound of a taser, then sounds of gunfire.
Why would the neighbor say this? Probably because she believes it, but that doesn't make it accurate. Perhaps she doesn't like guns or violence and believes that the young, naked man, high on acid, already having cut up one person and threatening the police with the hammer, should not have been shot.
I read one account of this in the campus paper in which one person, allegedly at the scene, complained that the police should have only shot to injure the naked man instead of shooting him to stop him. Which, in fact, did stop him from harming anyone else. The police rightly pointed out that when someone is intent on doing you death or bodily harm, it is not a good idea to try a Hollywood shot to merely "wing" the person, or, like Roy Rogers, shoot the hammer out of his hand.
This is, unfortunately not an a-typical scenario or reactions to it, but similar to what one can expect should you ever have to use your weapon in self defense. There are those who will not accept, condone or approve your actions even though they are moral, legal and necessary to save your life. All the more reason for you to know your legal and moral rights and be prepared to act upon them should that awful necessity arise.
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