Officer Shoots Panhandler in Self Defense

Civilians aren’t the only ones that need to defend themselves. Sometimes police officers must employ self defense when they least expect it. That is exactly what happened recently in New York when things got out of hand on a subway platform.

Two officers in street clothes were standing on a subway platform in New York. As they were standing there talking, a man walked up to them and asked for a cigarette. The officer he asked showed the man his badge and was about to tell him to move along.

Before he could say anything, he got an awful surprise. The panhandling man pulled out a screwdriver and stabbed the officer three times! Thankfully though, he had a protective vest on that helped to keep the wounds from being too serious.

The officers started to struggle with the man. In the midst of the struggle, the stabbed officer pulled out his gun and fired off five rounds. He missed twice. Three of the rounds hit the stabber and one of bullets grazed a 16 year old bystander.

The stabber was taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition. The officer and the 16 year old were taken to the hospital in stable condition.

I’m not sure why this guy decided that it was a good idea to stab an officer. I don’t know why he would think it would be a good idea to stab anyone. But the officer was completely justified to fight back in self defense. The stabber is lucky that he didn’t get killed. However, if the officer would have used a Taser he could have avoided shooting the 16 year old. That is the problem with guns.