University of Alabama police officer kills naked student

[davidthegnome]

36. Bath Salts? A shot of Adrenaline? A psychotic break?

It would be good to have more details about the case. I'm trying to picture what I would do, personally, if a naked 18 year old man charged me. Hmm... first thing that comes to mind is, "frigging run, man." Of course, I don't have a taser, or a gun, or even so much as pepper spray. What would I have done if I did have them? Probably tried the taser, then tried to subdue the kid with rope, or whatever was available, I suppose. It's easy to sit around wondering what I might have done, but I wasn't in that position.

Hmm... 135 pounds, described as muscular, a wrestler.. so athletic, physically competent, but not very big. The taser and rope/ties/phone cord/whatever method probably would have worked. Unless the young man was so hyped up on drugs that he wouldn't feel the pain and also had crazy strength. I've heard stories of people on bath salts being tased, even shot in the leg and not even flinching. I don't know how accurate they are, whether someone jumped up on that stuff really could shrug it off.

Still... I would hope that in such a scenario, the use of deadly force would come only as a last resort. What tools did the officer have available? How big was he? Was he alone without anyone else being ready and/or willing to lend a hand?

It's sad that such a young student lost his life over this... and it leads me to wonder what the average police officer would have done in such a situation. If the Officer in this story is any indication of average... well, it's kind of scary.