Because unless you are a trained marksman, hitting an arm or a hand in that situation is pretty damned difficult. One or two misses and the hammer might be buried in the officer's skull.

Ed, I would like to think that ALL police officers that carry weapons are trained marksmen of the highest level. If this is currently not the case then perhaps some of the blame for this tragedy should be placed on those that would issue a deadly weapon to someone that is not fully trained and accomplished.

Based on this report...is it really fair for a human being to be killed because of being drunk and disorderly?
Or is it fair for human life to be taken for lack of proper training?
No way... no excuse...unless this report is grossly wrong..

Because MSP has way more experrence investigating shootings than the CCSO does.

I'll be curious to find out how many times the officer fired his weapon to "incapacitate" this individual

Beanbag guns are usually rifles, I believe, and generally not what an officer carries with him when they roll up to a crime scene. They are much better for crowd control when officers know they might be useful beforehand. I agree a taser might have been useful here, but not every cop or agency has one.

So far no proof of how much he had to drink...and there are no laws that I am aware of that do not permit you to hit your own vehicle with a hammer...a hammer is a tool, not a weapon and this guy did not use it as a weapon...there is NO justification for the cop to shoot and kill him...period. Bad CHOICE by the cop that pulled the trigger Norma.

Buck, reading the story I'm not sure if HIS truck refers to the son of the father.

Amy: That's the point I was making ,you can call it "reviewed" if you like,but the fact is I'm sure the officers will be questioned in great detail. I seriously hope your background check comment is in jest.

Officers questioning officers....~~ cya at it's finest...the opportunity exists and should not...I don't support the drunk guy with a hammer that had the worst day of his life, but I don't support this kind of very poor response from perceived properly trained officers either... killing in this situation can't possibly be acceptable or proper behavior..

Gee, John, if disarming this guy was that easy, then why didn't family or friends take care of the situation before the cops arrived? And this happened Christmas night, NOT Christmas Eve.

There is no reasonable explanation for this shooting other than very poor training at several levels... The killer maintains responsibility for life...even if it's for the rest of his own....This was VERY poor police behavior, and this is also far more important than football lingo...the cop is a killer, no way around it..

Buck, what do you base your opinion on? What was the officer supposed to do when the guy was coming at him with a raised hammer? It's not an easy situation, so when it happened as quickly as it did, they had no alternative then to fire.

Had the cops properly accessed the situation and taken control before taking deadly action a life would not be lost for carrying or even swinging a tool. Especially if there were 3 cops on the scene...if the cops in this situation were in eminent danger it was because they put themselves there because of lack in seeking control...stand the police state type of line was not necessary ...

Again, what is it that makes you think you know what was going on & how the officers did not do as they were trained? Sounds to me that they did properly assess the situation and took control as best they could.

I don't usually respond to stuff like this but I feel a need here.

As a retired law enforcement officer with a large metropolitan dept. I have been involved in 3 shootings in my 32 years on the job. Let me preface this with NO OFFICER want to be involved in any shooting, however sometimes it is necessary to protect yourself, or others in the area from bodily harm.

Not all departments have the funding for tasers or bean bag guns. Something else to clarify: bean bag guns are NOT a rifle, but a modified shotgun with a beanbag load. Both bean bag and tasers are quite expensive.

Now a few things to make all of you aware of:
1. This individual was acting recklessly and was posing a threat to his family members that called the police for a domestic, and all information obtained from the 911 call is given to the responding units.
2. More then likely there was a "call history" at that address and they also were given that information as well.
3. I looked the individual up in criminal records and he had a history of aggravated assaults, drunk and disorderly conduct, resist arrest, theft, drugs and more.

They were not in their cars. Threatening an officer at arms length with a hammer is absolutely a mistake that will probably turn out to be fatal. For the officer if he doesn't do anything or for the bad guy if the officer responds correctly.

There was a lot that could have and should have been done between the two extremes in your post Native... by not having the proper training the cop did not have necessary skills to resolve the very basic situation without death having to occur.
This would be the best case..

Continuing from above:

The officers are trained to stop a threat and center of mass is the target area. They are not trained to shoot legs, arms etc...

A hammer is an improvised weapon. It can kill you with one blow, just like a shot from a handgun or rifle or a knife. They are taught to protect one another as well as themselves.
More about me so you see where I am coming from. Retired with the last 5 years in the Internal Affairs Bureau of my former dept. I have been personally involved in 3 shootings, one of which I took someone's life. He came at myself and my back up officer at a domestic with a bat. We were familiar with this guy, and generally he was quite affable and respectable, but this night he was intoxicated and there was no reasoning with him. I had 3 young children at the time and when he hit me the first time with the bat, it happened so fast, but I saw all of the kids in my mind and made the determination to shoot this man as he meant to kill me. As he was lunging at the backup officer I fired and forever changed my life!
I am haunted to this day of that call. The other two shootings were involving drug dealers and they shot first, so no real choice there. They did however survive.

Tanks for sharing Dave A. , I don't believe that killing this guy was necessary..the cop was supposedly behind the car for protection as he was supposedly trained to do.. the guy that got killed did not hit anyone, and had no weapon to fire anything at them...the cop could have kept distance by simply keeping the car between himself and the young man that he killed. I don't believe that any attempt to talk to this guy took place, but rather ...orders were shouted at him..dumb..proper training or equipment could have avoided the unnecessary killing and both parties would be far better off today. In my opinion the cop didn't have to kill him...there were other options based on the way that this tragedy has been reported...

Good grief Buck, we're all telling you from experience but you still think the cops were the bad guys here.

Native..I never said the cops were the bad guys...I'm certain that killing this guy was a result of lack of proper training though.. to assume that I said the cops were bad would be typical of your style and comments though. I'll wait for some more facts...

The basis of fact is that the cop killed a human being without good reason...he over reacted and obviously was not trained as a marksman. A well trained marksman could have stopped the guy without killing him...he wasn't even running at them. If a cop is assigned a deadly weapon to carry and use he or she should be trained at the highest level possible...not the case here in my opinion...
Keep in mind I only share my thoughts and opinions Native...as I'm sure you do as well. I believe that there are too many bad cops because of the lack in proper training, this one has surfaced at the expense of another human life.

Buck, you do realize that only a very small subset of cops and military folks are "marksmen," right? All of them have to show some proficiency with weapons, but marksmen are a whole separate breed. Studies have shown that most marksmen have a pulse and heart rate that are significantly slower than the public in general. They also tend to ply their trade from more remote locations (rooftops and such) so they tend not to get caught up in the adrenalin of the moment. But even marksmen are trained to aim for body mass, not for limbs. I'll tell you what, if you can find me ONE police force in the country that instructs officers to shoot for limbs instead of body mass, I will publicly retract all of my previous comments on here. You act like what the Taneytown cops did that night was outside normal police response. We can debate if their procedures were right up until the time Becker was within arm's length of the cop. But once they decided firing a weapon was needed, there was no choice other than to aim for the body. And Buck, while "Monday morning quaterbacking" might seem like football lingo, it is common usage now for second guessing in everything from sports, to politics to Sandy Hook to, sadly, police involved shootings.

No, you are talking to anyone who reads this comment section. And apparently the editors here agreed with me because your offensive posts have disappeared. I'm sorry you lost a friend, but if you can't respond on a site like this without gutter language, vent elsewhere.

I would liken that statement to our judicial and dominant police mentality ...
The young man that was killed by the cop was most likely a human being dealing with some difficult problems....my have been acting out in search of help..who knows, he's dead.. we need more details...get to work Patch..

Peter, no, not all agencies, especially small ones, have Tazers for every officer if at all. Taneytown has about 10 or 11 officers on the force. Even if half of them had access to and training for a Tazer (much different than firearms training), they may not have been on duty at the time. I'm not sure if even MSP or the CCSO uses Tazers. They also have their drawbacks. In some instances, people have died from being hit with a Tazer (and then of course, the cops get sued, even though they were trying to use non-lethal force). Also, some folks amped up on certain substances, like PCP, will sometime not even be slowed by a Tazer. Non-lethal weapons have a place in law enforcement and maybe they would have worked here, but they won't solve all of these situations.

Sorry, but you're wrong. Obviously the man didn't heed the orders to drop the weapon. The police cannot be in a position of running away from or hiding from the crazed idiot while they're trying to sweet talk him into playing nice. The name of the game is eliminating the threat before he injures the officer or someone else (like the public). Lets say the officers hid in their cars. Then the guy takes the hammer & proceeds to hit a member of the public in the head. Then the onus would be on the police for not protecting the public from harm. In simple, black & white terms, you had a drunk individual reportedly out of control with a weapon destroying property. The police arrive & the man immediately approaches them with the weapon held high in a threatening manner, ignoring orders to surrender. A situation such as this requires quick thinking in order to eliminate the threat. You don't turn around & run, you don't shoot a leg or arm (because of the possibility of missing). You shoot to center of mass (chest), where you have the greatest possibility to put the threat down. You folks can do all the second guessing you want, but them's the facts. If some drunk idiot was in my house & was coming at me with a hammer over their head in a threatening manner, I'll be putting them down as well.

At this point Native I really must inform you that I believe that you are full of crap, and would create any combination of words in an attempt to justify the killing of a human being by the police dept.
No more to say until some more facts are brought forward....back to work Patch..

Aw c'mon Buck, can't we debate facts instead of you resorting to personal attacks? Happy New Year pal!

Think we've both said all that we can until some more facts are provided...calling bull crap is not a personal attack....it's just calling bullcrap...Happy New Year to You Native!

Buck, if this guy wanted to commit suicide by cop, nobody would have been able to talk him down. I suspect that this is once again the fault of a broken mental health system but instead of debating that, we are debating what a young cop making $50,000 a year or less did right or wrong in a chaotic situation. Couldn't pay me enough to be a cop in this day and age.

And you really thought that meant they got in their cars to hide?

Rich, I believe in multiple sources for these things -- CCT, patch, the Sun and some of the Baltimore TV station websites -- and there were subtle differences in the wording in all of the first-day stories. But anyone who knows anything about police training would understand that cops are trained to use their cars -- either doors or the body of a car -- as a way to get something of substance between them and someone who could do them harm. Getting inside the car would be of no benefit to them. Although perhaps if they are going to get second-guessed by people who weren't there, maybe they should have just left and told the parents to take care of the situation. $40,000 to $50,000 per year wouldn't be worth it for all of this crap, not to mention the burden of knowing they took a life.

Um, no, he was at his PARENT'S home, and they were the one who called the cops. He may have lived there, but he was 23 . It was NOT his home unless he was on the mortgage or lease.

I believe that I have made a similar statement several times already on this thread Dave A..

Amen!

I believe that killings by cops should be investigated independently outside of any police department...Police policing police is similar to the fox guarding the hen house..

The Sheriff's department has the most authority though..

Really, Buck? Please explain how the sheriff has the "most authority" in this case. Also, of law enforcement isn't supposed to investigate these shootings, please tell us who should. And please b e specific.

Fact Ed..based on the authority of the US Constitution the office of the Sheriff has more authority and power than the State or any local police department...

Based on the many years of perceived experience that you share..( don't know if it's true), I would expect this kind of defense from a retired cop...If you are telling me that the 3 cops had no other option but to take the life of a human being, I'm telling you that you are flat out wrong...and that your many years of experience did in fact leave out some very important, potentially life saving training...fox guarding the hen house would be the case..

Also Dave A. ..an elected Sheriff is held to a greater degree of accountability to the citizens than any police dept. in general could ever be.. accountability is what is needed here.
I know ...said you're done posting on this... typical...

That, my friend was LACK OF TRAINING! Shooting at a small target like a hand, while trying to focus on shot placement while an individual is more then likely shifting, shaking, with the possibility of hitting something else in the background is LACK OF TRAINING! This is the stuff buck should be citing!

Dave, This past summer I witnessed an off duty State Cop sway over the center line of MD Route 30 in Baltimore County and hit a young lady almost head on, driving her into a wood fence. I was on foot and right there when it happened. I didn't know he was a cop until the cops came and hustled him into the back of the ambulance that responded... I helped the cop to the side of the road ,(before I knew he was a cop) and he was drunk as a skunk. The young lady was trapped in her car with the airbag blown but they seemed to recognize the State trooper and i witnessed the cover up begin...I had not spoken to the cops that responded, just listened and observed... overheard the fact that this same cop had run into a house in Hampstead while drunk previously. I made it a point before leaving to share what I had witnessed after it seemed that this event was well on it's way to a cover up.
I've talked to ex cops that I grew up with that have also verified the truth about how they will go to great lengths to protest their own. This was in fact a bad and very real experience. I still feel for the young lady that was hit by the drunk State Trooper. Do a little research on this one with some of your spare time...check it out!

protect their own

I now believe that it is a civic responsibility to always question perceived authority in these deadly situations..

Ok Dave...I don't think that the killing in Taneytown had to happen, you seem to, we disagree on several points with regard to proper training as well.. I've witnessed bad cops, you haven't...fact remains there are. This shooting should NEVER have occurred in my opinion, it seems to be ok in your opinion and if the cops say it is, it is.
You're right , I will have a problem with that determination based on what has been reported to date, and I do believe that it was more a result of lack of proper training and equipment. I never said the cop was bad, just the killing of the young man...
The stuff that I witnessed was in addition to several other stories shared with me from ex cops, and no I would never assume that this is the norm. Stories like this killing bring serious questions though. We each deal with them differently I guess.
I don't participate in these blogs for the hell of it...I care.

The trooper was terminated because there was a witness willing to testify..

I respect your thoughts and opinions Dave...Happy New Year ..