Policeman fires warning shot after truck thief threatens him with hatchet

Drug dealer ...

Police quoted that man as saying he was an American citizen but he had an Australian passport belonging to another man with him at the time.

police has yet to ascertain id of the suspect and 'another' man?

@some14some

Probably police already have, but due to confirmation and investigation, not all information is made public at this time.

I believe that is a due procedure for most police forces in the world

I must say I do like living in a land where "police fire warning shot" makes headlines.

The officer showed considerable constraint. Based on the circumstances, it would've been a justified shooting "if" the suspect charged at officers with the hatchet.

American police take notice: not every incident needs to be solved by emptying your entire magazine into the suspect.

@Wc626 Yes a lot of constraint... and also being a police officer in Japan and shoot a gun is a very big deal. This officer will have to fill in at least 2 written reports on the circumstances and reasons why he made a "warning shot". Also, he (or the police) will have to submit the casket (and if retrieve the bullet) that was shot to the government. The gun that shot the bullet and the bullet will be subject of inspection too... and all that is just for a "justified" warning shot.

Imagine what if was an "direct shot", "wounding shot" or even worse "not fully justified" shot.

He should have just shot him.

@Daniel. Yeah, i know the drill. But I'm sure the officer will be able to articulate his actions and any reviewing board with find him justified for his actions. The supplemental reports will support the officers actions and any witnesses.

Imagine what if was an "direct shot", "wounding shot" or even worse "not fully justified" shot.

Yeah, that would be another story. Since shootings are rare here. Do japanese police carry the X-26 Taser?? Non-lethal & very effective in those stand-off scenarios.

will have to submit the casket (and if retrieve the bullet)

Hehe, I'm trying to imagine what it would look like if police from my country (USA) had to track down and turn in all the bullets they fire. It would be an endless quest.

I wonder where the bullet came down at. People have died from bullets shot into the air.

Police quoted that man as saying he was an American citizen but he had an Australian passport belonging to another man with him at the time.

So the guy's a passport thief as well as a truck thief.

I don't blame the officer for firing a warning shot, but is it safe to fire shots in the air, presumably they come back down at killing velocity. I guess firing into the ground risks a ricochet. Certainly better than the US where the guy would probably have been Swiss cheese. In the UK I think unarmed police could still have dealt with him safely with pepper spray or tazars.

what comes up must come down, if you fire directly above you the projectile will come down, if you fire over the subject the projectile will continue until it hits something.

you are fortunate that no one has learned that yet - the hard way. that is why warning shots are no longer used in the united states. not because the US is more violent but because there were injuries.

I don't blame the officer for firing a warning shot, but is it safe to fire shots in the air, presumably they come back down at killing velocity.

I believe there was a mythbusters about this a few years ago. If I recall correctly, a bullet fired directly up into the air will fall back down at it's terminal velocity, and a normal handgun bullet is unlikely to be heavy enough to reach a speed that could kill someone (like dropping a bullet from a high building). However, if you fire a gun into the air at a 30 or 45 degree angle, it could maintain enough speed to be able to kill someone when it eventually hits the ground.

if you fire over the subject the projectile will continue until it hits something.

It might skip over a pond and settle down to a nice slow sink but who cares ..nobody was killed.

that is why warning shots are no longer used in the united states. not because the US is more violent but because there were injuries

...so now they just shoot 'em?

warning shots don't work with people threatening a police officer with a weapon and should not be encouraged. anyone threatening a police officer with a weapon should be shot and if the idiot survives they can pay for their medical and legal costs later

Those worrying about injuries, death from this officer's actions, check out where this happened, look at how many people live there... chances are there were more wild boar around.

wielding a hatchet at police

attempted murder, then

he had an Australian passport belonging to another man with him at the time.

and false imprisonment?

and false imprisonment?

. . . your way off. If he restricts someone else's freedom of movement and continually detains by use of force, fear and or duress, then you got false imprisonment.

. . . your way off

He has another man's passport in his possession while in a stolen vehicle and wielding a hatchet. What is unclear is if the Aussie is with him, or if 'with him' simply refers to the state of having the item on his person.

Either way, why would he have the other man's passport, Wc626?

I respect the action of the police officer. He decided not to shoot to kill and ask questions later.

There are lots of kudos to the officer in this thread for "not shooting" the suspect. (who is claiming he's an american citizen).

With all the anti-US sentiment in every other thread throughout the various JT Forums recently, you'd think the officer would be criticized for NOT shooting a felonious, hatchet wielding american to death.

Baffling-

you'd think the officer would be criticized for NOT shooting a felonious, hatchet wielding american to death.

No. Far too much of that insanity happens already across the pond. Kudos to the officer for putting sense -and not bullets - into him.

@commonsense. The "bad guys" on the other side of the pond really that bad though. The insanity is their thuggish lifestyle, music and addiction to narcotics. They all love obama too. Yet, instead of lawfully obtaining firearms and obeying laws, they pose with their uzi's and AK's each new CD they release.

The "anti-Americanism" is regarding American policy, not Americans. I don't think anyone want to see someone needlessly murdered. That's why we are so disgusted by American gun laws.

Why then call it a needless murder if the officer reasonably assesses the circumstances and is justified to shoot?

& it's not a law- it's a Right.

Why then call it a needless murder if the officer reasonably assesses the circumstances and is justified to shoot?

The officer reasonably assessed that he was not justified in shooting the man. And he was right.

Shooting a man who does not need to be shot is needless murder.

The 'right' in America comes from the stupid law.

Officer was right. Good call. Just goes to show how the split-second / quick & timely decisions officers have to make in each scenario is an overwhelming factor in their careers.

The 'right' in America comes from the stupid law.

And Obama will never get to change it.

The suspect may be an American citizen, but thank god the police weren't, for his sake. If they had been the guy would have been shot about 200 times by now after being chased by 20 cruisers or so.

Wc626: "Why then call it a needless murder if the officer reasonably assesses the circumstances and is justified to shoot?"

Because as has been proven time and again many of the police in the US are not of sound mind and cannot judge what is reasonable or not. Just look at the idiots who get caught on camera jumping out of still moving cars and unloading on kids at parks, or jumping on the hood of a car that is bullet ridden from some 200 or more shots and unloading into the driver after he's already down. Murder is not justified, and it IS murder.

Fortunately Japanese police have some restraint, and in this and other cases it shows.

Police quoted that man as saying he was an American citizen but he had an Australian passport belonging to another man with him at the time.

uh... what?

This is perhaps the most bizarre sentence, devoid of logic, I have come across yet on JT. 'Someone care to untangle this?

Lucky man. In America, he would have been gunned down before even raising the ax.

@Black Sabbath "Lucky man. In America he would have been gunned down before even raising the axe".

But who cares? In America, bulky, oversized coward in police uniform could easily unload his gun into "suspect", a kid playing in kindergarden. Japanese policeman showed good professional skills. The suspect is alive and ready to answer all questions in court.

Yamachan,

I think you missed the point of my post. Correction that:

you missed the point.

For a bundle of reasons I wont list here. All I will say is that you should never...ever, fire a warning shot into the air. Whoever trained or told him to do that needs to be "fired"

@WC626 what is with the shtick at Obama, no president will change it, the USA Government is owned by the corporations.

Police quoted that man as saying he was an American citizen but he had an Australian passport belonging to another man with him at the time.

It doesn't seem so difficult. The police quoted the man (meaning the suspect claimed that) he was an American citizen. However, it was interesting to note that even though he made this claim, for some reason not yet made clear, he had a passport belonging to another man, who happened to be from Australia. I imagine the police will be wanting to talk to the Australian.

How I wish I lived in Japan. A country where the headlines are about a policeman firing a warning shot not the headlines of more mass murders like here in the US.

@Dennis. Yes, corporations. glad you know this . . . The shtick at obama is for all anti-gun crap he ran before taking office and his recent criticism of the nra/congress in the wake of the shootings.

All I'm praying for is that this does not get spinned as another Gaijin Hanzai propaganda tool and have everyone screaming about how bad all the foreigners living in Japan are.

Good job by the police officer, but he fails in execution. You don't fire warning shots like on TV. When a bullet leaves the gun, it is going somewhere. If he shot it in the air, it's not going to be like in the cartoons and somehow come right back down next to him, shoot into the ground, a chance of a ricochet and injuring himself and allowing the perp to get the upper hand on him, and shooting at the perp and missing, you run the risk of the bullet finding an innocent bystander.

If you shoot, shoot at the perp shoot center mass to take them down, and you don't try the fancy stuff you see on TV of shooting to take a weapon out of their hands or in the legs to stop them.

It's quite interesting seeing how people from around the world view the American police force, especially as an American. It is easy to create and preserve a stereotype after the events that have occurred in the past year, but it's smarter to realize that was merely the action of a small number of the police force all over the country. Just because a cop is an American citizen doesn't mean they go around pumping people full of lead. The reason so many people hear about it is because that type of action really is headline news. Now take this article's headline into account; the fact that a Japanese cop had to resort to firing a warning shot is pretty big. With that being said, I think firing a gun into the air is a good idea, but a little pointless in this scenario. If a man was charging at you with an axe and you had a gun to defend yourself, would you shoot at the clouds? Personally, I think one in the leg would have been sufficient enough. Could you imagine if the man continued to charge and actually did harm to the cop? Then it would have been an international incident and the question of not properly defending himself with a gun would have been raised.

If a guys coming at ME with a hatchet, f@ck that warning shot cr@p.

@Dennis BauerJUN. 23, 2015 - 08:58AM JST @WC626 what is with the shtick at Obama, no president will change it, the USA Government is owned by the corporations.

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What corporation in UA ??? Japan Inc in USA do not own US Govt. Are there powerful American corporations in USA?