Cop praised for refusing to shoot murder suspect who ran at him

        
Police in the U.S. have been making the news for a long time for being trigger happy.

However, one officer, Jesse Kidder, is being praised for refusing to shoot a murder suspect who charged at him shouting ‘shoot me’.

Michael Wilcox is facing double murder charges and was in a chase with Kidder before stopping his car, getting out and heading towards the patrol car.

Kidder backs off as the 27-year-old approaches him. But rather than pulling the trigger, he says ‘I’m not going to shoot you, man’.Gun drawn, but Jesse Kidder refused to shoot

The former Marine had been warned by dispatchers that he may try ‘suicide by cop’, but Kidder said: ‘I wanted to be absolutely sure before I used deadly force’.

While running backwards with his gun raised, Kidder falls over, and Wilcox continues to approach him. But once he’s got back to his feet, he tells Wilcox to get down on the ground.

Kidder told WLWT-TV: ‘He jumped out and he sprinted toward me. I had my firearm already drawn … and I told him to put his hands up in the air and he was screaming “Shoot me! Shoot me!”.’

‘For him to make the judgment call that he did shows great restraint and maturity,’ New Richmond Police Chief Randy Harvey said. ‘This video footage, it eliminated all doubt that this officer would have been justified if in fact it came to a shooting.’

Kidder has been praised for his restraint (Picture: WLWT)

Wilcox is charged with the fatal shooting of his 25-year-old girlfriend, Courtney Fowler, and is a person of interest in a Kentucky slaying.

Authorities say he had a violent encounter with Brown County investigators who tried to arrest him before he drove off and headed west toward Cincinnati.

Kidder’s display of restraint comes at a time of intense scrutiny of police tactics. The killings of two unarmed black men by white police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City touched off protests and a national debate over police conduct that intensified after grand juries declined to indict the officers.

Earlier this month, an unarmed black man was shot and killed by a white police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina. The officer was charged with murder and has been fired by the North Charleston Police Department.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a 73-year-old volunteer deputy, who is white, faces manslaughter charges after being accused of shooting a black man to death while the suspect was being held down by other officers. The volunteer deputy said he shot the suspect after mistakenly grabbing his handgun instead of his Taser stun gun.

Via Metro