We’ve seen more police involved shootings in the last month than we have since we started this newspaper – and before, when I worked for the now defunct Grayson Journal-Enquirer and Olive Hill Times.
The city of Grayson, while never free of crime or violence (What city is?) has been a relatively safe and peaceful community. It hasn’t been the kind of place where you fear letting your children outside to play. At least, not until last week.
Last week, and not this month, because until Friday we had one isolated incident involving someone threatening the safety of one of our police officers.
Now we’ve had two individuals charged with attempted murder of a police officer in almost as many weeks.
We all know being a police officer isn’t a safe or an easy occupation. Not only are they tasked with enforcing the law; in doing so they regularly deal with demonstrably dangerous and violent individuals. Add in the wildcard of drugs and alcohol intoxication – a danger even without firearms in the mix – and every interaction becomes fraught with stress and anxiety.
It’s not an enviable position, to be sure.
Police officers also know their actions are often being scrutinized by the press and the public. And they should be. They are, after all, entrusted with extremely serious duties and responsibilities. Duties that should not be taken lightly. They know if they discharge a weapon, there will be questions. It’s part of the process even when – as in the last two incidents, thankfully – no one is injured as a result of shots being fired. It can’t be something any officer enters into lightly.
But it does rightly raise the question of when law enforcement is allowed to open fire or otherwise use what the Kentucky Revised Statutes (KRS) refer to as “deadly physical force.”
According to KRS 503.090(2)(a) only law enforcement officers, “authorized to act as a peace officer” are justified in using such force and only when, “(b)The arrest is for a felony involving the use or threatened use of physical force likely to cause death or serious physical injury; and (c) The defendant believes that the person to be arrested is likely to endanger human life unless apprehended without delay.”
In the June 10 case, Christopher Carpenter struck an officer with his vehicle, which we believe constitutes “physical force likely to cause death or serious physical injury.” Indeed, that officer was treated for injuries sustained during the incident. Though those injuries didn’t end up being life threatening, they easily could have been.
Though we still haven’t heard all of the details of Friday’s arrest, Dylan Evans was charged with terroristic threatening, wanton endangerment, and menacing, among other charges. He was also charged with public intoxication on a substance other than alcohol – throwing that previously mentioned wildcard factor into play.
We’re not sure how many shots were fired last week. According to one report we received the number was somewhere around 300 – though that felt hyperbolic to me. Once the suspect was out of the public, and holed up in the bathroom of the home he invaded, shooting ceased. The Grayson Police were then able to bring Evans into custody without anyone sustaining any serious injuries.
But the owner of that home reportedly has children. She was in the home when Evans locked himself in the bathroom.
Things could have been much, much worse than they were.
We’re thankful they were not.
Though Evans apparently made threats toward someone, we don’t believe he was out to indiscriminately hurt anyone. If he was, he had plenty of opportunities to do so. Instead, it appears from arrest reports that he was under the influence of drugs and made a bad decision; a decision that could have gotten himself and others hurt. Likewise, Carpenter doesn’t appear to have been looking to cause mayhem. Instead, like Evans, it appears he found himself caught and when that happened he panicked. Also, like Evans, he now finds himself charged with attempted murder.
We don’t think either of these men set out with murder on their minds, but they made bad decisions. And decisions, as we repeatedly tell our children at home, have consequences – even if they are unintended.
