A man shot and killed by Chattanooga police late last month after expressing suicidal thoughts sustained 43 bullet wounds, according to a preliminary autopsy report made available today.
Alonzo A. Heyward, 32, apparently was pointing a shotgun at his face outside the Rossville Boulevard McDonald’s restaurant on July 18 when approached by police, according to officers. Officers followed Mr. Heyward to his home on 7th Avenue, continually asking him to disarm.
When he did not comply, officers said, they shot him with a stun gun. When that wasn’t successful in getting Mr. Heyward subdued, the six officers on the scene fired on the man.
The medical examiner’s report indicates shots struck the man in practically every portion of his body. He had bullet wounds from his face all the way down to his ankle, according to the report.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Adam Crisp covers education issues for the Times Free Press. He joined the paper's staff in 2007 and initially covered crime, public safety, courts and general assignment topics. Prior to Chattanooga, Crisp was a crime reporter at the Savannah Morning News and has been a reporter and editor at community newspapers in southeast Georgia. In college, he led his student paper to a first-place general excellence award from the Georgia College Press Association. He earned ...
That's is a little excessive...how many shots were fired total? It would be interesting to see how accurate those officers are with regards to overall shots on target.
That is definitely excessive. I would call that overkill.
Over 7 rounds per officer. Cheeeeze. Had the guy been armed and charging with a fully automatic assault rifle, sure, but a shotgun? After announcing his intentions of suicide by cop? One would think there would be a more controlled response available to remedy the situation that is unfortunately a common issue for today's law enforcement community.
As an officer I'm going to tell you our perspective. First of all I understand this may look bad, but here's what you have to understand. 1) When you decide to shoot someone, it's not like Gunsmoke, the guy doesn't just fall over normally. Most of the time you don't even know they were shot 2) The reason officers are taught to shoot multiple rounds is because not all rounds typically hit the suspect. In addtion, to kill someone immediately to stop the threat requires rapid blood loss (unless the brain or heart is hit), but to attain rapid blood loss requires rapid holes or shots. For what it's worth, I won an award in my academy for best shooter, and when I was in a real shooting I fired 8 times, and my partner fired 7 times. The only reason I stopped was because my gun jammed (this happened in about 2 to 3 seconds). The man was hit once in the ankle. I was aiming for his chest and head and about 15 feet away, go figure. 3) If you as an officer, or anyone in a threatened situation believe your life is threatened and choose to only shoot once or twice as implied by these comments, you better prey you hit him and prey he goes down from it because the other guy doesn't play by any rules, and the idea is to NOT have any rounds coming back at you because then you both die
Anyway, I understand these types of deals look bad but you have to remember us police officers want to go home at night. I can't give a guy pointing a gun at me the benefit of the doubt because I'm literally gambling with my life and I'm coming home to my wife and kids, period.
Or login with:
New Account