DAVENPORT – Police in Davenport were put in a difficult situation Monday evening after responding to a report of a distraught man with guns who reportedly wanted to die by police fire.
Davenport police reported early Tuesday that on September 22, 2014 at approximately 7:15 PM, the officers were dispatched to 2814 Fair Avenue, reference to an individual waiving guns around, threatening to harm himself. The caller was inside the residence, out of harm’s way, and said the individual was alone in the garage and “possibly may want to die by police fire”.
At approximately 7:37 PM, the Davenport Police Department’s trained negotiators arrived at the scene and began a channel of communication with the individual. As the dialogue continued, the individual began to drink and seemed to be getting more irrational and agitated. After approximately 3 hours of negotiating and no opportunity to create any type of diversion, it escalated with the individual aggressively advancing towards the officers with one weapon in his waistband and another in his hand. The subject was then shot and killed by the officers.
Four police officers were involved in the incident. Their names are not being released at this time, the department said, “out of courtesy of notification to their families first”. The name of the deceased individual is also not being released at this time, pending notification of his family. All four officers have been placed on administrative leave as directed by department policy.
As a Davenport Police Department protocol, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal Investigation, were notified and will investigate the incident.
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Police did the right thing. Protected the public and saved time and court costs, Need more of this, thin the herd.
Again, another incidence of target practice for the police. I’m still thinking more creative non-lethal solutions could be developed for these type of situations. The police are public servants, paid by tax dollars to serve the people. We are their bosses. If we want to force them to come up with different ways to handle non-hostage, lone psychiatric situations, then I think they’d better listen to us. My initial thought is shooting long range tazers or using tranquilizer dart guns.