Vic: Police defend fatal shooting of 15 year old

AAP General News (Australia)
12-12-2008
Vic: Police defend fatal shooting of 15 year old

MELBOURNE, Dec 12 AAP - Police who shot dead a 15-year-old Melbourne boy during a confrontation
on Thursday night did everything they could to subdue him, Victoria Police say.

Three officers fired at the teenager as he threatened them with knives in a skate park
in Melbourne's north about 9.30pm (AEDT), after two doses of capsicum spray failed to
stop him.

Assistant Commissioner Tim Cartwright said police had also fired a warning shot.

"He was saying: `Kill me, I am going to kill you'. He had been saying that through
the confrontation," Mr Cartwright told reporters on Friday.

"I don't think police were trigger happy but that's why we've got a coroner and the
homicide squad to do a full investigation on (the coroner's) behalf.

"As far as I know, it happened in a matter of seconds. The police backed off, the young
man was extremely agitated, he had two knives and the three officers saw fit to fire on
him."

Mr Cartwright said the teenager had been involved in a family dispute earlier in the
day and had tried to take two knives from the family home before he was disarmed.

There was no history of drug use or psychological problems with the boy but he had
been involved in a minor assault that police knew about, he said.

"The family told us he left the house in an agitated state. He's gone to the Northcote
shopping plaza and stolen two knives from K Mart," he said.

Mr Cartwright said the police had acted consistent with their training and had not
failed in their job.

"If we step through the events and the investigation we've conducted today, the members
did everything they could to talk him down. They deployed OC (capsicum) spray, they backed
off," he said.

"At the end of the day one of our member's lives was at risk and the three members
saw fit to defend that member.

"This is not a police failure. It's a dreadful tragedy, it's a failure of the community
that we get a young man in these circumstances where the ultimate outcome is he violently
approached police and he's shot dead."

The shooting has prompted renewed calls for Victorian police to be armed with Taser stun guns.

Police Association secretary Senior Sergeant Greg Davies said that while the full circumstances
of the tragedy were not yet clear, a Taser gun may have prevented the fatality.

"Certainly, it seems this may have been a situation where a Taser gun could have been
deployed," Snr Sgt Davies told AAP.

"You can almost guarantee if the circumstances were conducive to the use of a Taser,
then using a Taser would have meant he wouldn't have had to have been shot. He would have
been temporarily disabled and handcuffed."

Victorian Criminal Justice Coalition Convenor Father Peter Norden said they had advocated
for more than 15 years for an increase in specialist response teams to people suffering
disturbed behaviour.

"The use of capsicum spray and a violent confrontation is often the worst possible
response to a young person displaying emotional or psychiatric symptoms," he said.

"The Victorian community calls for a more sophisticated response in dealing with disturbed
individuals, particularly very young people."

AAP gr/szp/ce/ldj/cdh

KEYWORD: SHOT 2ND UPDATE (PIX AVAILABLE)

2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.