Kristiana Coignard was a 17-year-old girl with a history of mental illness who went to the police department in Longview Texas and asked to speak to an officer. She allegedly had "I have a gun" written on her hand. She was not in fact carrying a gun, but apparently brandished a knife and lunged at an officer, at which point she was shot multiple times by two officers. A third officer, the first on the scene, claims to have fired a taser at her first, but it's too hard to make out in the video. Not that it matters anyway- the bullets were fired by the other officers just seconds after. The police did not treat her like a mentally ill girl seeking help, but like a dangerous criminal.
It's clear that she went to this station for one of two reasons: to potentially receive mental help, or to commit suicide by cop. There is no other reason someone would go into a police station with "I have a gun" written on her hand, when she didn't actually have a gun.
From the beginning, police handled this situation improperly, trying to subdue her before trying to talk to her. A public psychologist could have been called to the scene; the cops could have knocked her unconscious; she could have received the help she needed.
Taser claims true or not, the other offices in the video had absolutely no intent of nonlethal force, as they fired without hesitation.
The police NEED proper training around mentally ill people. It's clear that this Texas department was entirely unequipped to deal with a situation like this- very American of them.
From the LA Times, "'She says she has a gun, he has to secure her at that point,' Brian said." (1). After the writing on her hand was shown to the officer in question, he immediately attempts (very poorly attempts) to subdue the teenage girl- no talking, no trying to diffuse the situation.
Whatever you take from this situation, the video makes it apparent that Coignard had no reason to die.
This being America, the officers are of course on paid leave. Kind of like a murder bonus. The knife in the video makes this girl the attacker and not the victim- that's how it'll be spun. It doesn't take a genius to realize that these officers will face no repercussions. They will almost surely get to keep their jobs and return to work after this has "blown over." That is, as much as the murder- medical examiners ruled Coignard's death a homicide (2)- of a mentally ill teenager can. Sadly, we live in a place, a world, where no one really gives a shit.
The only possible form of fucked up justice in this situation is that this event will haunt them. I hope these officers are not psychopaths- that at some point down the line this decision, and it was a decision, to kill this girl weighs down on them like a three-hundred-ton pile of rubble. I hope they realize that they did not have to end this young woman's life, and that they are the opposite of heroes.
Unfortunately we exist in a place where these officers and most of America believe their actions to be justified. Some American officers can be better classified as "trained psychopaths" than "police officers."
Maybe as an old man one of them will look back at this moment through the perspective of Coignard; the perspective of a depressed and hopeless 17-year-old trying to find help in a world full of uniformed men with guns aimed at her.
"Robertson previously told the political blog ThinkProgress that her niece had bipolar disorder, had attempted suicide twice but was not violent toward others and that the incident was a 'cry for help.'" (1).
1. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-texas-shooting-20150129-story.html
2. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/28/kristiana-coignard-longview-texas-police-killing
3. http://www.inquisitr.com/1798843/kristiana-coignard-was-she-issuing-a-cry-for-help-before-being-shot-dead-by-cops-or-did-she-have-a-gun/
4. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kristiana-coignard-cctv-shows-horrific-5063973
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