Lancaster police Chief Jarrad Berkihiser said an officer who shot and killed a man armed with a knife was in imminent danger of losing his life and acted appropriately.
"There's been some question about, you know, where was the officer's backup? And should the officer have waited for backup? And that's a good question, and we can't always wait for backup,"
"In this instance, the officer took his time walking up so he could try and assess what was going on, and he responded to the imminent threat that he perceived. There is no magic word, phrase that we can say to automatically stop somebody in their tracks from doing whatever they're doing. We have no control over somebody's free will,"
Berkihiser said the officer responding to the 911 call also had no way of knowing Munoz's mental health history when approaching the house on the 300 block of Laurel Street. Munoz's family said he was a paranoid schizophrenic.
"A lot of people talk about deescalation. There was no time to verbally deescalate. He was being chased by an individual with a knife,"
The chief thinks it would have been a mistake to send a social worker alone to the house, saying that person would be dead.
Mental health agencies and police departments have to work together, Berkihiser said, but he also wants to work together with the community.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Rick R
