"A senior policeman has defended the actions of fellow officers who shot dead a teenage boy at a skate park in Melbourne's north last night, claiming the youth said "I'm going to kill you" before he was gunned down.

The boy has been named as Tyler Cassidy, 15.

At a press conference this morning, Assistant Commissioner Tim Cartwright said the officers had been confronted by the knife-wielding boy at the All Nations Park in Northcote.

Assistant Commissioner Cartwright said the boy had threatened the officers with knives while saying to one officer, "Kill me, I'm going to kill you."

He said the threatened officer backed away into a stairwell. The cornered officer then fired on the boy as did two others as they tried to defend their colleague.

Assistant Commissioner Cartwright said the police officers had done everything they could before opening fire on the youth.

"I don't think the police were trigger happy but that's why we have the coroner," he said.

"The members have reacted as we would want them ... they've ultimately had no choice."

He said it was not known how many shots were fired and the incident was over in a matter of two to three minutes.

The teenager is believed to have stolen two knives from a nearby Kmart after threatening staff.

Assistant Commissioner Cartwright said the youth had earlier tried to take kitchen knives from his home but his family had disarmed him.

He said there was no suggestion the boy suffered from mental illness or was drug-affected at the time. It was not known what had triggered his rage.

"The family's rightly very, very upset," he said.

Police were called to the Northcote Plaza Shopping Centre car park about 9.20pm yesterday after receiving up to four calls from the public about an agitated male carrying knives.

Assistant Commissioner Cartwright said the officers - two female constables, a leading senior constable and a senior constable -  had tried to calm the armed teenager who ran a short distance to the skate park before approaching one of the police officers and threatening to kill them.

Seconds after a warning shot was fired into the ground, three of the officers shot at the youth who was standing up to 14 metres away.

"This is a dreadful tragedy,'' Assistant Commissioner Cartwright said.

He defended the actions of the officers and said they had been trained to fire at the central body mass rather than shoot to wound.

"The movies would portray that you can shoot to disarm people. That's not our experience. These are events that are life-threatening. People are extremely nervous, agitated, scared."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/kill-me-ill-kill-you-shot-teens-warning/2008...

Someone waving a knife at armed police threatening to kill them is a serious health hazard.

I would not do it !!!!

mantra wrote on Dec 12^th, 2008 at 12:40pm:


Yep, that's what they are trained to do and rightly so. Was it justified? I guess there will be an investigation but on what has been presented then that would be the expected outcome. Calling the individual a child is probably generous.

Chopper Read was as big if not bigger than most men at 15 and quite dangerous. Cornered in close proximity to a knife weilder that is physically capable of killing or wounding you accompanied with verbal intent to do just that. Do ask the criminal to fill out a personal history questionaire or do you decide it's better for his family to grieve rather than yours.

Quote:


He might have been small and skinny.  It's a wonder the police haven't got some sort of net they can throw over people - or dart guns.   The Victorian police will probably be supplied with Tayser guns now if they haven't already got them, but they are renowned for shooting a lot of people.

I find it difficult to imagine that 4 properly trained police couldn't overpower a 15 year old.  Three of them opened fire - but then again they probably weren't much older than the victim and panicked.

It's really sad, but in that situation I think they did the right thing. He didn't go down after getting the pepper spray, so I think that says something.

mozzaok wrote on Dec 12^th, 2008 at 7:34pm:


Quick, check - are we missing any regular posters from the multicultural board?

muso wrote on Dec 12^th, 2008 at 9:46pm:


Did you check under your bed and in your closet for wacists before you went to bed last night, Muso?

Amadd wrote on Dec 13^th, 2008 at 12:00am:


I also thought it was quite strange that the police shot down the teenager. Particularly when all he was holding were a couple of knives.

Don't they have martial arts training or something?