While the Louisville police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a knife-wielding teen are still officially under investigation, the department\u2019s chief is firmly standing behind their actions.<\/p>\n
Detective John White and Sgt. Jason Poston were in front of Bader\u2019s Food Mart in downtown Louisville late Wednesday night when 18-year-old Tyler Dattilo verbally accosted them. Moments later, the teen pulled a knife and the officers opened fire. Both officers have been suspended, but Louisville Police Chief Steve Conrad said they didn\u2019t have \u201cany other option.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this situation, I do not believe these officers had any other option than to use deadly force,\u201d said Conrad.<\/p>\n
Surveillance footage shows Datillo lunge towards the officers. White and Poston backpedaled and drew their weapons. They fired an undisclosed number of rounds and Datillo was fatally struck. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe officers drew their weapons, backed away quickly and gave commands for the man to stop,\u201d said Conrad.<\/p>\n
The officer-invovled shooting has left locals divided. Some feel the officers were justified, while others believe they should have first used less-than-lethal force.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t have to kill the guy,\u201d said James Oliver of Louisville. \u201cThere was no reason for that. They could, they could\u2019ve used Tasers, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 21-foot rule says that a person can close the distance of 21 feet before the target can recognize the threat, draw their weapon, and score a hit. <\/p>\n
Datillo was armed with a knife and was quickly closing the gap of just a few feet. If the officers had attempted to reholster their sidearms and draw their Tasers, it\u2019s statistically probable that Datillo would have come out on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sad, it really is sad that, you know, young people would take a knife and threaten somebody,\u201d said Christopher Huber, a frequenter of Bader\u2019s Food Mart. \u201cI don\u2019t know why they would necessarily do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chief Conrad said the investigation into the shooting is still underway.<\/p>\n
\u2018We absolutely do not want to take a person\u2019s life,\u201d said Conrad. \u201cIt is a tough thing that officers sometimes have to do, but it is not something that we take lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
(This article was a submission by freelance writer Brent Rogers<\/em>) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThey didn\u2019t have to kill the guy,\u201d said James Oliver of Louisville. \u201cThere was no reason for that. They could, they could\u2019ve used Tasers, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":40926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,326,261,241,240],"tags":[132,291],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gunsamerica-authors","8":"category-brent","9":"category-police-state","10":"category-rapid-fire","11":"category-this-week","12":"tag-buzz","13":"tag-dgu"},"yoast_head":"\n