Bean Bag Round Subdues Knife-Wielding Woman

September 26, 2010 8:20 PM

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WESTLAKE DISTRICT (CBS) — A Los Angeles police officer Sunday fired two nonlethal bean bag rounds at a knife-wielding woman in the same Westlake district where a Guatemalan day laborer with a knife was fatally shot Sept. 5.

Police Subdue Knife-Wielding Woman In Westlake District, KNX 1070’s Ed Mertz reports.

An officer ordered the woman, who was stopped near Sixth and Coronado streets about 4:40 a.m., to “put the knife down” and when she refused, an officer fired two bean bag rounds at her, Sgt. Melvin Gamble of the Rampart Station said.

Paramedics were summoned to check out the woman, who refused treatment and was expected to be taken into custody. Her name was unavailable pending booking.

The woman, dressed in black, was screaming and waving the knife when officers spotted her, Gamble said.

She was apparently upset about a child of hers who was molested some years ago, Gamble said, adding that she apparently felt that justice system wasn’t working fast enough.

Gamble said the woman did not drop the knife after the first bean bag hit her. Officers moved in after the second round struck her and she dropped the knife.

Gamble said officers were able to grab the woman’s arms and handcuff her without putting her on the ground.

Though the woman refused medical treatment, paramedics took her to County-USC Medical Center, where she was undergoing a mental health evaluation.

The use of nonlethal force to subdue the woman comes three weeks and several blocks from where a bicycle officer fatally shot a Guatemalan day laborer, Manuel Jaminez Xum, who was allegedly drunk, brandishing a knife and threatening passersby, including a pregnant woman and 4-year-old boy. Xum was shot in the head near Sixth Street and Union Avenue.

After refusing orders in English and Spanish to drop the knife, Xum allegedly lunged at an officer, prompting bicycle officer Officer Frank Hernandez to shoot him. The killing set off several days of unrest in the immigrant-dense neighborhood.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Chief Charlie Beck drew criticism for defending the officer in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, saying the facts would show the officer was justified in shooting Xum. But others in the neighborhood found it hard to understand why police did not use less-than-lethal means to subdue Xum, who associates and relatives described as drunk and disorderly, but not a threat.

Bean Bag Round Subdues Knife Wielding Woman

Alan Hart

This isn’t fair. If she is in the same neighborhood and is weeling a knife, she should have been shot in the head like the other guy. Why should she get special treatment just because she is a woman?

Kid

maybe she didn’t lunge at the officers. she just stood there. so they had time to break out the bean bags. didnt sound like she was threatening anyone. just a crazy lady in the park with a knife.
RedDonnaAnn

She didn’t receive “special treatment” Bicycle cops don’t carry bean bag guns, tasers, batons or tranquilizer guns. This latest nutjob in Westlake ran up against a patrol officer in a car.

I am so sick of people banging on the cop who shot Xum: he was in an extremely crowded area, he was threatening women, some of whom were pregnant, the knife he was swinging around had blood on it and he was ordered in both English and Spanish to put down the knife. What should the office have done, waited until he fatally knifed a pregnant woman?

I’m sure your complaint then was the stupid cops don’t care about Latinos enough to defend them. If you think things are so unfair on the force, go join it.
Noel D

I agree 100%

Leslie

Sure … ranting and wielding a knife around in a park is a GREAT way to kick start the wheels of justice.rolling faster on an issue. Are these people from another planet???? Good Lord.
Todd

God Almighty, not again. These people don’t have 2 brain cells to rub together, do they? Let the “police are evil” demonstrations by the illegals begin again tonight. SICK OF THIS!!!
Michael G

LOL@ Alan Hart. Leslie, be compassionate. Only desperate people commit desperate acts like this. “These people” are you and me and everyone we know. Anyone can be driven to desperation given enough struggle. If you can’t relate, count yourself lucky, even though it may hinder you from attaining any real compassion for others.

Kush

You are warped, misguided and probably, a reverse-bigot, if you think that some people who are “desperate” have the right to commit violent and threatening acts. How do you explain why people like me, who are desperately without income and suffering for it, never commit those types of acts? The answer must be the attitude of entitlement, due to falling into a particular, favored ethnic grouping. Isn’t that it? It’s time, as a society, we stopped doing destructive things, according to some jaded, idiotic, ultra-liberal agenda, instituted by arch-conservative, cheap-labor-seeking, corporate manipulators.
RedDonnaAnn

So… what is law enforcement’s job? Is it to protect the innocent from harm by the dangerous or to … what?

Have you ever been attacked? Have you ever had a friend get attacked? My friend and I were attacked in the park years ago. She was punched dead in the face, in a crowded park at dusk. He took her purse with her keys, her wallet, her photos and I took her to the hospital where they stitched her up and treated her for shock.

I have been a lifelong Democrat but people like you… you are the problem in California, it’s true.

Doreen

Poor woman. Obviously she was trying to commit suicide by cop and that’s why they used bean bag rounds on her. I’m sick to death of child murders and molesters getting off scott free or in a revolving door policy where they go in and out of jail to molest and murder other children. I say just execute the molesters because they aren’t ever going to be “cured”. They will always do it again and again.
p

Going to be all kinds of B S because of what happened 3 weeks ago.. Need all the FACTS. The first question will be how come the officers did not use bean bag rounds to subdue the man? You know it’s going to happen.

the gods must be crazy

These officers were in a car responding to a 9-1-1 call to a bakery regarding a womand wielding a knife. She had left and they found her. They had time to be prepared. The first instance involved bicycle cops. They don’t have trunk, so no bean bag guns. Do you really think the cops on Sept. 5 were just biiking around looking for some excuse to shoot someone in the head? Sheesh.

ta

They shouldn’t have Bean Bagged her to death, just because she’s a Latina with a knife. I know lots of Latin folk who carry knives. They use the knives to cut their Carne Asada, and Quesadilla’s.
Ana Orozco

Let me get this straight a women is holding a knife but doesn’t lunge at the officers get shot with less lethal, but the guy who tries to kill several people gets shot. Sounds like the officers in both situations did the right thing.
Buck

Great job cops. Thank u for not taking justice into ur own hands
Swartznegger

Round up all the illegals and deport them
Try pulling a knife in Guatemala
Honduras, Mexico
Mrs.C

I think the point some of us are failing to see is the incident involving the man was handled by officers on bikes and the woman’s incident was handled by a patrol car. Bean bag guns are RIFLE size. Tell me… where on earth is an officer on a bike going to SAFELY stow a RIFLE? And please, don’t be crude.
leroy brown

Why wear black is this heat
mom

Mother is 100% American and not of Latin decent, Molestation took place only weeks ago. Multiple victims under age 11, who have made statements to police/detectives.. No charges filed on the molester, who has since skipped out of the area. Like finding a needle in a haystack with the plethora of ‘ID’s’ available on Alvarado. Police in the area have higher priorities than children being robbed of their innocence.