Dallas Police Forced To Shoot, Kill Woman

[Bob F.]

Sounds like a good, though regrettable, shoot to me. 9/11/01=boxcutters?!
Like to have seen a taser used first, IF POSSIBLE! I've heard stories of thm failing, too. Drugs/mental status can make a big difference.

 

[GAC]

Lived in Oak Cliff

I had family that lived in Oak Cliff the past 30 years or more. They live in the "gentrified" area mentioned before. It's on Colorado Blvd and a very nice neighborhood. But, the crappy neighborhoods were not too far away. I lived there for a year after college and would occasionally hear gunfire in the evenings . My uncle said people would go down to the park up the street and shoot a few rounds in the air and leave.

I was talking to my uncle one evening and he said how a white neighbor - must have been in the late sixties, early seventies - was looking to fly on out of there once "other" people started to move in. The neighbor was afraid of dropping property values and crime and whatnot. Turns out he was wrong for that neighborhhood, my uncle's home on a corner lot is surely worth more than 500 grand.

 

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

Update from The Dallas Morning News/WFAA website.

Post-game analysis from local MH folks.
-------------------------------------------------------
Mental health advocates: Death was preventable
06:09 PM CST on Monday, January 5, 2004

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV

Last summer in downtown Dallas, police were confronted by a mentally disturbed man with a knife posing a danger to himself and to police. The man was subdued with the use of a pepper ball gun. In the case of Diann Kemp two days ago, the pepper balls did not work. Kemp stabbed an officer before she was shot dead by Dallas police. Her son said police ignored his mother's mental history and that her death could have been prevented.

Everett Young said police were aware of his mother's condition. "When they type that name into the computer in that car they know how to handle the situation," he said.

Acting Police Chief Randy Hampton acknowledged that patients who are mentally ill create a special concern for officers, but local mental health expert Vivian Lawrence said a specially trained officer may have helped spare Kemp's life.

"A person with mental illness can't respond quickly, they need time to process what's going on," she said. "An officer trained as a mental health officer understands that. They will ask them a question, give them time to respond and then ask them another question.

The Mental Health Association of Greater Dallas has been lobbying local law enforcement to train more officers to help de-escalate incidents involving violent patients who are mentally ill. Representatives assert the city has never shown much interest in using concepts successfully adopted in Houston and Austin.

Lawrence said the killing of Diann Kemp was probably justifiable but also probably preventable.

Acting Chief Hampton will awaiting the outcome of the department's internal investigation before deciding to make changes in how mentally-ill suspects are handled.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Online at: http://www.wfaa.com/latestnews/stories/wfaa040105_jml_6dpd.112b14f1e.html


-----------------------------------------------

Regards,
Rabbit.

 

[LoneWulf]

Justified shoot.

I am trained in Crisis Intervention with the mental health community.
I have successfully resolved a few situations, none as hostile as this one, and having the training can definitely help.
However, there is no reason to risk the safety of anyone for the sake of an out of control mental patient.
I am genuinely sympathetic to schizophrenics, they did not ask for their condition, but I will not risk my life unduly or my fellow officers lives because they have a chemical imbalance.

Not a good situation for anyone that was involved, not good at all.

 

[BluesBear]

Young said his mother had been in and out of several mental institutions over the past year.

Well now she's out for good.

He said his mother suffered from schizophrenia...

That's why they had to fire multiple times. Once for each personality.



I used to be schizophrenic but now we're much better.

 

[tyme]

I know treating schizophrenia as MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) was necessary for the joke, but it's important to note that schizophrenia is not MPD.

As a current and past Dallas resident, I have to agree that most of Oak Cliff is a disaster. On the other hand, there's a really good violin shop there.

 

[TheEgg]

Lawrence said the killing of Diann Kemp was probably justifiable but also probably preventable.

If you changed this quote to say "also might have been preventable", I think you would cover it. To say "probably" is too strong, because even if a Taser was used, trained officers in intervention where there, etc., the scenario might have ended the same way. But maybe not. Speculation at best, in either case.

Folks, I work in south Dallas most days --- it is one of the reasons I NEVER leave home un-armed. Last year a person was shot and killed for about $8 at the bus stop about 150 ft. from my office. -- and sadly, that is/was not an isolated incident.

 

[artherd]

The only thing they did wrong was let her get close enough to cut them, and HAVE AN ND INTO HIS PARTNER'S FOOT!


Kudos to them for trying the OC Ball. It didn't work, that's why they also have guns.


I understand the son is upset, but he should be blaming himself, not the cops.

 

[chetrogers]

I cant see how anyone could think it was excessive..If I was to do what she did then run at offices with knife i would expect to get shot.And if somebody broke into my house and at me was coming with a knife my first instint would be to unload in them..Not think on how to disable the weapon..Just my opinion and i dont think its better then anyone elses.

 

[keyhole]

IMO- justified


Will be "Monday morning q-backed" for a long time, like most shootings. Unregrettable, and sorry for the officers that went thru it.

 

[aerod1]

As a young boy, I lived in the Oak Cliff part of Dallas until I was 10 yrs old. It used to be a very good area but there is a reason my parents chose to move in 1954. Now you know the reason.
This shooting was justifiable IMHO.

Jim Hall