On the surveillance video that the department released, you can see the moment in which Coignard decides to die. She raises her knife and charged at Derr, who shoots, as does one of the other officers. The third officer deploys a TASER, but by then it was too late. She lies on the floor for a few minutes until emergency medical services arrive. The department has released a statement and held a press conference. The officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the Texas Rangers.
When police misread the circumstances of encounter with an individual with mental health crisis, the possibility for violence rapidly escalates. The only solution is for law enforcement to try to stabilize every encounter, to the extent possible, as if it involved psychiatric disability.
As a nation, we are in the midst of an extended conversation about police violence, and this case stands out as unusual. The victim was white and female, for one thing. Moreover, ugly use-of-force incidents usually result from police being too quick to escalate, rather than too slow.
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