Holden Shooting
On May 29, newspapers reported that for 40 minutes five San Diego police officers encircled a young man in a bizarre cat-and-mouse sequence. The photos show four uniformed San Diego police officers within 10 to 40 feet of him.
Apparently Wayne Douglas Holden was a mentally distraught 21-year-old college student who was obviously having some type of mental disfunctioning for what appear at this time to be unknown reasons.
My concern and, I hope, the concern of the community is: Why is it that five trained professional San Diego police officers were unable to effectively subdue Mr. Holden in the 40 minutes when the cat-and-mouse sequence was proceeding, without having to fatally shoot Mr. Holden after he entered Mr. Ballard’s home?
The City of San Diego is in dire need of updating its equipment to be able to effectively subdue someone such as Mr. Holden without having to resort to a fatal shooting.
Since Mr. Holden was armed with a knife and not a gun, why couldn’t he have been disabled in the street with a shot in the leg, struck with a baton(s), or various other less Draconian means than being fatally shot?
It is apparent that for the good of the community the San Diego Police Department’s policy concerning this type of situation needs to be rethought and the officers retrained.
JOHN G. PHILLIPS
San Diego
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