Winner of the Ghetto Lottery
SAPD hostage negotiators talked a jumper off of a highway overpass, only to shoot and kill him moments later. Shades of Roscoe Rules.
I can hear it now. “man you don’t want to jump. It’s really messy. Your mama will puke to see you like that. Come down off the bridge. You can pull the knife and we’ll shoot your ass. It won’t be nearly as messy. Your mama can sue the city… Hey, not -bang,bang, bang, bang, so fast.”
Suicide is it real or fantasy? Climbing out on a ledge is a pretty good indication of intent. But the ledge is only twenty-five feet above the ground. That seems to indicate a low percentage chance of success. Maybe if a passing car… but the cops stopped traffic. The problem with suicide is that the potential self killer is limited to means and methods readily available.
It’s kinda of hard to shoot oneself when a gun isn’t available. Wait, ding, ding ding, we have a winner. I know, call the cops they got plenty of guns. They got Tazers, bean bag rounds, Mace and capture nets, don’t want that. The suicidal may not be rational, that doesn’t mean they are stupid.
“I know I’ll stand on a ledge. They can’t use any of their less lethal stuff. I might fall off the ledge. Plus in the movies, the cops get really close, trying to build rapport…”
Sometimes, cops gotta take their successes incrementally. They did talk the guy off the ledge.
