On June 19 at 8:20 p.m., Gary Christian called local police on his son for "freaking out." Little did he know when they showed up, police would kill him.
What happened to negotiating? Police should be diffusers of situations rather than escalators. Our public servants should be willing to spend hours negotiating to save any life whatsoever.
Devin Scott, who was only 20 years young, could have been talked to and given a chance. It's situations like these where even though he had a bad history and he had a knife, we must set a higher standard for saving a human life at all cost.
The Kingman Police Department investigated the officer-involved shooting and turned their investigation over to the Mohave County Attorney's Office. They claim Scott was advancing on him aggressively, but if you watch the video below, police are the ones who are advancing.
All of the officers have been cleared following the investigation.
Lake Havasu City Police have released 911 tapes of the officer involved shooting and body cam footage of them rushing in and killing Scott.
"Get away from me, I've got your kid," Christian said to Scott on the recording. There is a scuffle and the phone goes dead.
When dispatchers called back and Scott answered the phone, he told them to "call off officers."
"He overreacted and called 911," Scott said.
"Ok, what is your name," the dispatcher asked.
"He's deliberately trying to get the cops called, please stop - Dad [expletive] stop, why did you just - No, you're not in distress," Scott said. "Can you call off?" he asked.
"You do not need to know my name because the cops do not need to be called to this address because he's overreacting because he is instigating an argument with his son right now," Scott said.
Scott repeated multiple times to "call off officers."
"I can't do that because he called 911 and I heard what was going on there. Please tell me what your name is, or give him the phone," the dispatcher said.
After that call ended, Christian got on the phone with them again.
"He was fighting with his girlfriend. I mean, this has been going on. He was arrested last Sunday for domestic violence," Christian said. Christian then told dispatchers that Scott was trying to break into his home.
When police arrived, Scott was barricaded in his bedroom, where he'd picked up a small knife.
According to Havasu News, Christian described the knife Devin had as a "small throwing knife."
"They had two of the riot mats when they rush a cell to pin an inmate," Christian told a reporter. "There were four cops, two of those mats and five feet to rush him. His knife was this long, blade handle and everything," Christian said, using his fingers to illustrate about six inches.
Christian continued, "It wouldn't have even penetrated their jackets, let alone the mattresses they were carrying. They could have fallen on him and pinned him."
But they didn't fall on him. Instead, they chose to abruptly end Scott's life.
Below is the graphic body cam footage of police bursting into the bedroom to find Scott laying down in bed. When he gets up with the knife, he is not charging anyone, only telling them to "get out."
Instead of simply retreating and waiting to diffuse the situation — cops chose almost immediate deadly force.
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