He was not the sharpest person you would ever know. Kept most to himself, as do most in this neighborhood, it is quiet, nothing really ever happens around here.
So, I am coming back home late Saturday night from a free dinner at Ray's Boathouse in north Seattle, and it was awesome! But, I could not get home. Why? Well, it seems that Ty had a fight again with his girlfriend and she accused him of slapping her. So she dials 911 and a police officer is dispatched. Ty tells the officer to get out of his face and pulls a gun. The cop retreats and reports in.
Then an estimated 30 (!) sheriffs deputies descend upon my neighborhood, as well as a SWAT team, and close it down all of the streets for our safety. Oh please spare me the politically correct over reaction here!
So, I am stuck on the road, about four houses down from the action and so close to my turn to my house I was tempted to drive on the sidewalk! And nothing to do but sit and watch.
Ty is now rip roaring drunk and the police are trying to talk with a drunk to no avail. Duh. So they lop some tear gas grenades through the windows and he refuses to come out. Instead, starts shooting through the door. The police report he was shooting at them, but in reality his eyes would have been so swollen and the gas so thick that he would not have seen the policemen, much less their cars to aim at. But, never the less, a sniper fired from across the street and killed him with a roof top shot. At the 100 feet for this shot, he could have blown the arm off the Ty's body just as easily and just as effectively ended the situation. You have to remember, I have had to make the same decisions as well as since I was a sniper. And I am proud to say, I never killed anyone, to my knowledge. Crippled, yes, killed, no.
And I have sat here now for days digesting this.
Yes, Ty should not have hit his girlfriend, if he actually did or not, we will never know. It will be assault whether she lied or not, and it seems this is something bandied about quite a bit as a false charge per my Seattle Police friends.
Ty should not have lipped off to the responding police officer. We have excellent police here and I have real respect for them. Domestic disturbance calls are the worse per my police friends because they can only go one of two ways and nasty seems to be the way they generally go.
Ty should not have pulled a gun on a police officer. Really? What was he thinking?
And the police should not have escalated the situation to the point of having to kill him.
It would have been easier to just let him sober up. Sure watch the front and back so he can not escape but really, you have to kill him?
Well, be that it may. It is with a collective sigh that we had to live through this and find ways of dealing with this in our daily lives.
I see two major problems here:
- Lack of respect for authority
- Lack of respect for human life
- Ty refused to respect his girlfriend
- Ty refused to respect the police
- Ty refused to respect his neighbors
- Ty held no life, including his own, with any respect
- The police escalated the situation until it was out of control
- The police presented a threat rather than a solution
- The police sniper did what he was trained to do, without consideration
- The police gave a trapped man no alternative
Without God there is no hope. With God, Ty could have understood that he had screwed up and been willing to surrender. With God, the police would have attempted to protect his life and not just their own, knowing that Ty's future did not have to be hopeless.
Same is true for your community as well. God is the answer to all of the problems which present themselves. Sure you might not like the answers sometimes but God's way is the better way and only death awaits those whom will not choose His way.
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