Man Shot and Killed by UC Davis Police

A young man was shot by Davis police officers yesterday outside UCD campus housing. The Sac Bee article states he was "depressed" after a relationship break-up, though the fact remains this man is no longer with us to tell his side of the story..

He was reported to have a gun with him, and this was the reason he was shot and killed by police. Police claim he began opening fire, though the process of initial police interrogation remains closed..

After police swept the UCD campus library earlier that same day and demanded ID of people who library security noted as "suspicious", this police/security crackdown may have continued throughout the day. Often people who appear homeless or low income are profiled along with racial stereotyping of Latino, Arabic or African males. The frequent police reason for demanding identification of random people is campus security or a "concerned individual" called a report of suspicious character or strange behavior (incoherent speech, etc) and this provides reason enough for demanding proof of identification..

Categorizing someone as "mentally ill" or emotionally disturbed can be reason enough to justify a police officer killing somebody. What is not often reported is how police interrogation tactics escalate fear and anxiety, considerably worsening the interaction. The person may have originally been calmer before the added stress of the interrogation. By adding stress, the police escalate and intensify the person who may eventually have calmed down on his own..

This is assuming the person wasn't already calm to begin with, and either someone overreacted or there was no call to police (or an unknown undercover called in) and the death of a young man was a fatal error of the campus police sweep..