Police: Officer kills man who beat child to death

Hang him

It was obviously critical that police intervene and immobilize the man who was beating the child to death. There must be more to the story as it has been written. Why could police not stop the 27 year old man who committing the violence, without killing him? Aren't police trained to understand that a person doing such an irrational act is likely mentally ill or under the influence of drugs or something? Of course it was critical to protect the child. Of course. Of course. But why aren't police able to immobilize with rubber bullets, physical force, stun guns, OR JUST SHOOT IN THE LEGS OR SOMETHING. There are people who have mental illnesses that can become psychotic when their medications go awry. This 27 year old man could have been in a psychotic episode and not even know he was beating a child. That may sound strange to people who don't understand how the brain can work when it is sick. None of that excuses his actions. He had to be stopped. But I don't understand this shooting death by the police?

The child might have been saved if one of those passersby had had a firearm. Such a person could have threatened to shoot the perp and could have dispatched the sunuvabeeatch had he not stopped before the human turd killed the toddler. I guess the state legislators in California have chalked up another innocent in their race to ban firearms.

So, let me see if I have you right, Ben, you think the cop should have used another means to stop this guy? You are as evil as the dead perp.

Ther is currently an amber alert in Ca for a 27 yo male, driving a pick up truck, who killed his wife and took their 2 sons...one aged 5 the other aged 3....Wonder if this is related?

BEN STROKED
YOU MUST ALSO BE A CHILD BEATER

Wow, we have here an idiot and a typical American.

Idiot: Ben, I guess you don't actually know what necessary force is. In this case, it was justified. If by some stretch of the imagine a woman actually helps you breed, and your poor child finds themselves in a similar situation, I pray that each member of your friendly, neighourhood Swat Team gets an accurate head shot on the evil person committing the crime.

Typical American: Um, Dean, if guns were more widespread and legal, this moron would have had a firearm himself and would have smoked the kid even quicker. Well, at least he wouldn't have suffered.

Finally, there is a reason to use force and they did it. I am sorry it was too late.

Ben, you have some issues. It is not like the guy was minding his own business and not doing anything wrong. This man was killing another human. Hell, I will pay the cop back for the bullet he used.

I am also with NTW Dean, I personally would have stopped the man if I had come across that situation. But then again, if there is a weapons ban, I would be going up state.

That officer deserves a medal. I am sick and tired of day after day hearing of abused children! The officer did the right thing, when the life of another person is in danger and the suspect ignores the orders of the officer...BANG! The guy killed the child so he got what he deserved..DEATH.

Ben you need to start listening to the news, reading the papers. Then maybe you will get sick and tired of the abused children as well.

I would advocate the death penalty for any person who causes the death or rape of a child. SEND THEM TO HELL AND LET 'EM BURN!

My appologies. I should not have said "Typically America". That was completely unjustified and I'm sorry. I should have said "Typicaly Gun Toting, NRA, Scumbag Rednecks". A like a good portion of the U.S., just not "those people".

Just to clarify my earlier comment, the life of the child was paramount. The man had to be stopped. No question. But think about this. We now of someone who was prescribed thyroid medication. They were to increase the medication over a period of weeks. As the dosage got higher they began to experience something known as thyroid psychosis. They became psychotic from the way the thyroid medicine affected their brain chemistry. In psychosis a person could think they were beating a wild dog and not a child. The brain is completely haywire. We also have a family member who had a similary "crazy brain" experience after taking a well-known antidepressant for 2 months. This person became violent and they never had been before. Now of course we have no idea if this in the story man is simply a psychopathic murderer, of someone who temporarily had a sick brain. Clearly the act of beating the child was horrendously sick. So it's worth asking, If that had been YOUR family member who was temporarily out of their mind for some medical reason, would you have wanted them shot to death, or immobilized? If, after immobizliation it was determined there was not a mental health issue involved, the man would be brought to justice and tried for murder. My heart grieves for this child and his family. I am not a liberal.

I am also sorry that the officer arrived when it was too late. I probably would not have done anything differently if I were in his position. Although if one of the onlookers were able to carry a firearm of his own (which I believe is verboten in California), then maybe the perp could have been stopped on time for the child to be saved.

the cop did the right thing. the guy was beating a child to death. I'm for civil liberties, but what civil liberties would have been protected if they had apprehended this killer? his right to a speedy trial? the child was given a speedy trial, and the verdict was this punk was going to beat him to death. Right to a defense? I'm sure his little arms and fists put up a good defense against his killer. the killer deserves no more civil liberties than he granted to this child.
let him rot in hell rather than california's prison system.

Francis,
If someone was beating you to death, would you care if it was because they were mentally unbalanced? I'm guessing that you would not while they were assaulting you; you would just want them to stop.
Deadly force is called for and authorized to stop a murder. The police officer acted appropriately.
Also, the use of a firearm by a police officer is deadly force- it is not used to injure, i.e a shot to the leg. I don't know about police, but in the military we were taught to shoot for center mass, not extremities. If an officer aims for leg, then there is a strong possibility of him missing his target and the ricocheting bullet could endanger the officer or others nearby.
The officers first priority was to protect the child. If that requires him to kill the suspect, then so be it.

Francis,
If someone was beating you to death, would you care if it was because they were mentally unbalanced? I'm guessing that you would not while they were assaulting you; you would just want them to stop.
Deadly force is called for and authorized to stop a murder. The police officer acted appropriately.
Also, the use of a firearm by a police officer is deadly force- it is not used to injure, i.e a shot to the leg. I don't know about police, but in the military we were taught to shoot for center mass, not extremities. If an officer aims for leg, then there is a strong possibility of him missing his target and the ricocheting bullet could endanger the officer or others nearby.
The officers first priority was to protect the child. If that requires him to kill the suspect, then so be it.

What does being liberal has to do with this? I'm a Democrat and I think this scum bag should have been stop, by any means necessary. I have heard when individuals are on certain drugs it's makes them 5x stronger than an average human. It sound like there were many people, which I'm not sure if it was males or females, but they should have bum rushed him together and taken him down to the ground. I can't imagine a 2 or 3 year old being beaten to death by someone and not step in. I'm 5' 4" 125 and I would have jumped in.

I'm so tired of some people excessively worrying about the criminals rights.
What rights did that child have when a grown-up decided his punishment? What was his crime? Did he cry too loud because he was tired, or even worse...hungry? I cannot imagine ANYTHING that a 2 year old can do that is so horrific, he deserved death.
I only wish someone with a gun had been there sooner.

I take anti-depressants. However, should I ever come to the point that my mental state put me in such a psychotic imbalance as to beat a defenseless child to death, I only hope that someone would have enough compassion for the child to put a bullet between my eyes. Liberals...someone always trying to over-analyze common sense.

Kudos to the police for doing the right thing. Unfortunately, they didn't get there in time to save the life of a child. We can intellectualize this all day long, but in the end, evil is evil and needs to be eradicated. Now we are spared the liberal pity party that would discuss this man's childhood and how he came from a broken home, how he was abused, blah blah blah. At some point in time, regardless of the historical circumstances, people grow into adults and get to choose the type of individual they become; they get to choose to do right or to do wrong. Any man or woman who would prey on children or the elderly, for whatever reason, needs to be removed from society - preferably permanently. Sometimes there is only one cure for this, and the police administered a time-tested cure that has proved effective throughout the ages. I won't lose sleep over the death of this man and the actions taken by the police; I'll lose sleep over the fact that there are still many, many of more of these types of people still allowed to live among us. 1 down, about a couple million to go...

Thank God for the police. Now we won't have to keep that SOB in a prison for the rest of his worthless life.

As a father of a toddler myself, I think the police officer used a bit more restraint than I would have. All one can imagine is the toddler could not understand why he was being attacked and his last moments on earth were suffering, pain and probably sheer terror. Nothing and I mean NOTHING a small child does can justify the kind of brutality this man showed. If I were in the officers poisition, not only would I have shot the man (emptying the clip) I also would have stuffed his face under the tire of the truck and spun it until his head flew off into a million pieces. I dabble in pacifism as much as possible as I do not like the idea of inflicting harm upon another human. However, if someone was to attack my child in such a manner I would seriously unleash a fury the likes never seen before. Make that if I see someone doing such a thing to their or anyone's child outside of normal discipline I will not only make it my business to step in I will most certainly go to jail for beating you three times worse. There is no excuse for child abuse be it from a man or a woman as both are capable of it. How can anyone take a happy, inquisitive and loving child and turn their aggression upon them? There needs to be a law passed allowing the use of deadly force on all child abusers. F-ing scumbags!

Mental illness or not, harming an innocent child deserves death. If I'm ever mentally ill and harm a child, please do me a favour and shoot me because I wouldn't be able to live with myself. It's like a rabid animal, sometimes you just have to kill it to protect the innocent.

If you're brain is that messed up that you are harming others without realizing it than you are no longer human. It's just like using drugs or alcohol as a defense, except using drugs and alcohol is just like playing with a loaded weapon, it's no longer accidental, it's stupid. Driving or harming someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol isn't an accident, it's 'attempted manslaughter'.

Francis,

Let's not forget that a police officer's number one reason for carrying a weapon is to protct THEMSELVES! I would suppose Francis that you would have officers carrying multiple types of ammunition and then in the midst of a high pressure situation stop and select whether they will use the rubber bullets or the lead ones? That's why they invented the TAZER remember? Maybe the first officer on the scene wasn't equipped with less-than-lethal weapons; should the officer wait until back-up arrives with the less-than-lethal stuff to take action?

Francis, nobody beats and stomps a child to death who is in their right mind, noone. Whether it was the thyroid meds, illegal drugs, organic brain disease, or just a case of one too many bad decisions that day, crazy is crazy. Yes Francis, if I had a relative who was going temporarily crazy because of their thyroid medications and was hurting a child, I would expect the police to stop them as quickly as possible, even if that meant killing them. It sucks that some people have these medical issues that you speak of but that' too damn bad. Their sickness is irrelevant when the @!$%# is going down. Maybe instead of crapping all over the cops for killing the guy, your passion would be better spent lobbying the drug companies for medications that don't make one crazy when taken incorrectly... or maybe just in keeping your eye on your at-risk relatives.

My biggest source of incredulity about this whole story is that one man could fend off what were apparently a crowd of people trying to stop him AND continue to beat the kid. What were they pleading with him? I think these "good samaritans" pussied out. You can't tell me that multiple people couldn't have rushed the guy and held him down till the cops got there. Maybe THAT would have saved the baby. AT least two or three could have given him somoen else to concentrate on other than the kid. Don't these people have tire irons in their cars?

I could care less if this guy was mental or on drugs. This was a baby that he was beating to death. Can you picture being there in your mind. This child is pummeled to death on a dark country road. This story is your worst nightmare. I'm glad the cops killed him, he was just taking up good air anyway. I can't stand the thought of people like this walking this earth.

As far as this being the age of cops beating up people and taking it where you say, you are demented . The cops are enacting laws we live by , which save more lives than they detroy.The media and loud mouths who should shut up and listen before they spread their extreme and rare tales of fear and ignorance are exactly the people we need to be protected from .Think of it this way, almost every one gets in an accident or a speeding ticket , yet few personally know anyone who was beaten by the police. If you are saying that the police were wrong when they saw this coward beat a child to death , it means you could stand by and watch that , and that , my co-commentator , is the definition of sick . Get yourself checked out , or try and lay your hand no my kids and see what happens......the cops won;t pull me off of you , to their credit.Once again , this world has gotten the attention of the few radical extreme situations and has made laws to protect them when they should be shot . Prime example,Manson up for parole ..What ?!?He's still alive ?