Concord police Tase man in wheelchair who brandishes replica gun - San Jose Mercury News
CONCORD — Officers used a Taser to subdue a man in a wheelchair who brandished what turned out to be a replica handgun at them, police said.
Police were called to La Tapatia restaurant in the 1800 block of Willow Pass Road about 7:20 p.m. Wednesday after restaurant staff reported that a patron had a gun, said Cpl. James Carroll.
When officers arrived, they found the man outside the restaurant sitting in a wheelchair, with what appeared to be a firearm in his lap, Carroll said. The man did not comply with orders to release the weapon, prompting the officers to use a Taser on him. He was not seriously injured.
This is actually raising some controversy in my home town.
Now, you folks all know I’m no big booster of cops and excessive force, but come on. The cops were summoned to a “man with gun” call, and they find a man with a gun. He didn’t comply with orders to put down the gun. Therefore, the cops tazed him.
Tazed him? Does he have any idea how lucky he was? In most jurisdictions, he’d be a dead man today and, frankly, rightfully so. If a cop is close enough to a gunman to taze him, he’s certainly close enough for the gunman to shoot him. Very few sane cops - or cops not paralyzed by political fears - will show such restraint in the face of a real threat, and I don’t think they necessarily should.
No, unless the “replica gun” was a lime green squirt gun, it doesn’t make a damned bit of difference at all. Neither does the wheelchair.
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You heartless fascist. How can you justify this? He was in a wheelchair, for lands’ sake! How much of a threat could he have been? Do you know what percentage of homicides are committed each year by people in wheelchairs? It’s tiny.
Actually, years ago my son had a water gun that looked EXACTLY like Uzi. No orange barrel end, either,
He got stopped late one night by a local LEO who walked up to the car, saw the gun laying on the back seat, and became very concerned. My son was very lucky. (And yes, once I found out about it, we had a LONG talk.)
Probably the best thing about it is that it was a copy of a Uzi. If it had been a regular pistol, it probably would have been even worse.
DCP.
Thank God La Tapatia restaurant was not harmed in this incident.
Yeah? Is the joint decent? Worth a trip across the bridge?
I’m not positive. The La Tapita in South San Francisco is fantastic, but they may be unrelated. Food to go only (and a store), hole in the wall kind of place.
It’s right across the street from city hall, on Grand.
You can buy all the fixings, too. Place is mobbed on Friday afternoons with people buying up for the weekend. Lunch time is busy, too.
Wait, I’m confused. Is it “La Tapita” or “La Tapatia”? Just curious. It’s not like I feel I have a need to pronounce it correctly in Spanish or anything como esto.
Oh crap, my bad. La Tapatia is the restaurant, La Tapita is a local taco wagon. My non-English spelling is only marginally better than my non-English pronunciation.