Heavy antispsychotics are prescribed to stop violent outbursts - so, the fact she was on them made her less of a threat. Also, 95 year olds are slow, frail, and weak. A fall can easily kill them. Police officers here in the UK are trained to deal with knife threats from fit and healthy young men - without recourse to tasers. Any of them would have handled this situation better, I hope.

What Sa Ruu says. Plenty of people in their 60s are physically very capable while almost everyone in their 90s is frail - and, notably, men remain on average far stronger than women at all ages. Any competent police officer can deal with a hobbling 95 year old woman wielding a couple of knives without needing a taser. *I* probably could, and I've had no training at all to deal with situations like that.

So since you are better with no training... just imagine what you could do with training. You'd be police chief in months. /s

All I'm saying is that I could have handled this particular situation better than the hopelessly incompetent police officer who caused the wholly avoidable death of a frail old lady, despite the fact I've no relevant training nor experience. The point I was trying to make was not that I'm any good, but that the police officer was very very bad.

That's a dangerous assumption to make.

and you dont read. She clearly said that "she also had a frail appearing little old lady". Dont cherry pick information to fit your narrative.

you are so full of s**t

Have you ever read the entirety of message before commenting? Did you miss the "frail appearing little old lady..." part?

Again that is a dangerous assumption.

@Ms. Mack: it's guaranteed that a 67 year old man in normal health is so much stronger and more agile than a 95 year old woman in normal health that no real comparison can be made beyond "the man has overwhelming force available compared to the woman, and can also expect to be able to fall over without suffering a life-changing injury, unlike the woman".

Really... For family reasons I go to a nursing home very often, I have seen several others and I know very well what ninety-five year olds are like, even those in "good health". What happened is pure madness. And I am beginning to believe that you have never worked in contact with the very elderly as you say.

The officer could easily have used a different approach, but decided to use an approach likely to cause serious injury. Ms Mack, I suspect you're unaware of just how frail 95 year old women are, especially when compared to fairly fit men below normal retirement age. Also, police officers have specialist training in dealing with all sorts of threats, and here in the UK at least wear stab vests as part of their normal uniform.

She had thrown one before the cop came. So he had only one knife to deal with.

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You know what else requires practice? Being a cop. Which you have never been.

You're right I've never been a police officer, but I have known a few, and had chats with some about how to deal with a knife threat. I've also known a few people who taught self-defence, and they showed me their techniques for defending against knife attacks. The techniques are effective against fast, fit young men seriously intent on causing harm. No copper needs to use a taser against a 95 year old who needs a walker to get about.

People f**k up and residents can get a hold of things they shouldn't. That said a 95 year old woman (or even me a fit 40 year old man) does not have the ability to throw a steak knife with lethal force and accuracy. It's absurd to think there was a threat beyond a bad cut. Probly there's not even that. This article enrages me so much.

I keep seeing this mentioned... but it doesn't really agree with physics. Throwing a knife takes skill to hit a target with the point consistently. It takes absolutely no skill to do so at random. And if a thrown knife hits the target point first, it will do significant damage. As long as the throw is hard enough to give the knife any horizontal velocity whatsoever, even if it's a complete rainbow trajectory, that knife will stick deep into flesh. That said, throwing an unbalanced blade-heavy knife from the handle has about a 0.001% chance of hitting point first without any skill involved. Surprisingly butter knives make excellent throwing knives, even dull, and can stick 2-3" deep into solid oak if thrown well. Steak knives not so much.

@Thanos"Fingers: I've had dealings with solid oak, and also the sort of wood they make archery target (boss) stands from. The only way you can get a butter knife to bury itself 3" deep into solid - seasoned - oak is by firing it at high speed from something much more powerful than a typical target archery bow. N.B: my experience is with recurve bows. Compound bows are a different matter entirely - we had to set up two bosses on the target to cope with the one club member who had one. Oh boy oh boy oh boy... (one worn-out boss at the front, one fairly sound one at the back - it took both to stop the arrows chewing up the wooden stand behind)

I do not support this officers actions, I am not and never have been a policeman, I owe this man no loyalty. With that out of the way: I'm nearly half as old again as you with a catalogue of physical injuries including titanium rods and a plate to hold my skeleton together, missing toes, missing fingertips, assorted shrapnel tucked away here and there, and so on - and I could easily throw a steak knife accurately enough to hit a man-sized target from 6 metres away, 8 maybe, as I'd assume most able bodied people can do (I may be biased there). From 2-3m I can throw it accurately and hard enough that it's going to leave a mark if it hits handle end first or a scar if it lands shiny end first. Much more importantly I - and other people younger, fitter, with more working parts than me - can chuck it well enough to put the fear of god in someone. You've no idea if the handles gonna bounce harmlessly off your shoulder or if the tip is going straight in your left eyeball.

If you throw a steak knife from the handle, it will almost always hit on the handle. Throw it from the blade with a solid wrist if you want to do damage. Steak knives also aren't meant for stabbing, but for cutting, so they break easily when thrown. I'd take a steak knife thrown at me over a butter knife any day of the week.

@Steve Sharpe: anyone throwing a knife at me from 6 metres (!) is going to find I'd moved the intended target point well out of the way before the knife reached me, at least if I saw the throw. At 2-3m range, I'd put up a hand to intercept it - a stabbed hand beats losing an eye. Yes I do think I still can, and I'm old and fat (aspects of my youth were mis-spent and/or well spent, depending on how you look at it). The thing is, we're not talking about a man in reasonable condition, able to make carefully considered actions: we're talking about a 95 year old woman, with dementia, unable to walk without a walking frame.

Lethal accuracy is not stabbing someone in the heart - if it was an actual sharp knife, a glancing blow to the wrist or face can cause serious injury and bleeding. I do not think tasing was the right call but really put yourself in his shoes - if someone whose state of mind was unpredictable threw a sharp knife at you and had another on-hand and you were having your worst day, what would you do? Again, not right, but not a reason for rage.

@LittleTeapot: I've been around a 90-something year old with dementia. Such people are no threat to the able-bodied, no matter what their state of mind - not unless they've somehow got hold of a gun or something ridiculous like that. They are, however, very obviously in need of care and kindness even when they are being - well, awkward. You speak to them kindly, and you know what? It's really, really easy to basically just ignore any force they try to apply. So what if a 95 year old chucks a knife? It's probably just a butter knife and anyway they need care, not a taser. Any experienced police officer has faced far more serious threats every week of their working life than something like that.

I've been around a 91 year old with advanced alzheimer's, and she absolutely was a threat. You spoke to her kindly when she was angry and it made her blow a gasket 50% of the time. There are no blanket statements when it comes to people

The main issue with very old people is that they are frail. A simple fall can kill them - brittle bones readily lead to a broken pelvis, and that can cause major internal blood loss. You don't do anything to knock over a 90+ year old unless you've got no choice about it. I've been around plenty of 90+ year old people and not one of those I've met could have posed a physical threat to me. I can believe a 90+ year old could try to get violent, but I'm pretty sure none of them have the strength to cause me any real bother. I'm a man of about average height, if that's relevant. Like many people, I played rough sports when younger. It helps to have some experience of being knocked about. I've been attacked by fit men in their 20s - scary, but one deals with it. They failed to harm me, which is one reason I'm sure a woman in her 90s doesn't pose a risk to me personally.

a) Murder them. b) Leave the room. c) Brush your teeth