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blannie Posted April 2014

Agitated 95 year old WWII vet killed by police because he was menacing. Unbelievable!

This poor WWII vet who used a walker and was wobbly, was hit five times with a beanbags shot by police at very close range (inside his room), while 5-7 police officers were trying to "subdue" him - one with a riot shield. My heart breaks for this Veteran who survived WWII, only to be killed by inept and idiotic police who were afraid of an old man with delusions. At least one officer is being charged with reckless conduct.

Police need better training on how to handle seniors with Alzheimers or paranoid acting out. As others have said, all they had to do was close the door to the room until he calmed down and/or went to sleep. There was no need to force the issue or cause him bodily harm.

But this is a wake-up call to caregivers about possible reaction to unruly elders by an uneducated and uninformed police force.

vegaslady Apr 2014
I reached out to my local police department today to let them know we have a person in the home with dementia (FTD) and if they get called it's in hope of getting him to an ER, not arrested or shot in the driveway (which happens fairly regularly in Las Vegas).

blannie Apr 2014
Yes, for others it happened in a suburb of Chicago last year. They have just now charged one policeman. I think they should have charged the lead officer who made the decision to first taser the guy (which didn't work) and then gave the order to hit him FIVE TIMES with beanbags fired from a rifle, which isn't the one who was charged. The policeman who hit the guy with the bean bags is the one charged.

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norestforweary Apr 2014
found the article.... The man died of internal bleeding after being struck by beanbag shots. Law suit!

norestforweary Apr 2014
Blannie, do you know where this happened?

blannie Apr 2014
He had a urinary tract infection, which is why they were trying to take him out of his nursing home room to the hospital. So I doubt he wanted to die, he just had the paranoia that a UTI can cause.

joe19632 Apr 2014
This is so sad.

pamstegma Apr 2014
Is it possible he wanted to die? I mean, you don't wave a twelve inch butcher knife at five cops without knowing they will shoot. They said he was mentally sharp. If you are mentally sharp you must know they will shoot.

blannie Apr 2014
Dagnabit - they took out my link to the story in the newspaper. If you google "95 year old vet killed with beanbags" you'll get newspaper links. I get why they take out commercial links, but I don't get why they pull out a reference that is a newspaper story. And my mention that a link was included was stripped right out of my posting, which means it lost half of its punch. :( Phooey!

assandache7 Apr 2014
That is so sad 😢 . I have to agree with cops being uneducated about elderly and Alzheimer's.

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