KENT, WA - “Why didn’t they just shoot the saw out of his hands? Or shoot the plug out of the wall?” That is what the likely response will be among Facebook University criminal justice graduates after police officers in Kent, a suburb in the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington, released a video where officers were forced to shoot a man threatening officers with a circular saw, KOMO News reported.
According to a news release posted to Facebook, Kent police said they responded to a domestic incident in that community on April 18, 2023. A 911 call reported a verbal dispute between a male and female in the East Hill area of Kent.
The 911 operator advised officers that a male subject was refusing to leave that location, was acting erratically, and was also believed to be intoxicated. Moreover, the caller told 911 dispatch that the man was drinking gasoline and pouring it on himself.
Police said, according to a witness, Kent officers made contact with the male subject, Dylan Wallace, who was armed with a circular saw. Officers attempted a tactical retreat while also attempting to use less-lethal options at their disposal to stop Wallace; however, those measures proved futile. Shortly afterward, officers fired upon Wallace, neutralizing him.
The release said police officers immediately “performed life-saving measures” assisted by the Puget Sound Fire Department. Despite their efforts, Wallace, 52, did not survive.
The police department called in the Valley Independent Investigative Team (VIIT) to conduct the investigation. Meanwhile, the involved officers were placed on administrative leave per policy, pending the outcome of the investigation.
As expected, a comment on the KOMO News website did not disappoint, saying, "Was this a Semi-Automatic Circular Saw? Aren’t there ways to Disable somebody without Killing Them? If he had pointed a gun at the Cops, then Shoot To Kill, but a Saw?”
Thank goodness some people aren’t a few fries short of a Happy Meal, with the following social media response to the above, “The police neutralized the threat to the public. This guy could have injured the officers and then took off and taken over the daycare of the school building. The WOKE just don’t get the real threat of dangerous people escaping and causing harm to others in their path of escape.”
Another response, since the incident occurred close to a daycare, “You forgot doused in gasoline and near a daycare center. Maybe they should have waited till he set himself on fire and burn down a building or chopped up a kid?”
And, as predicted above, this was also commented: “they coulda just shot him in the hip/legs, then he woulda just laid there in the street instead of dying.”
Apparently, the above rocket scientist has never heard of the femoral artery.
No further information was available as to the outcome of the investigation into the shooting.
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