Jeanetta Riley, 35, was gunned down using an AR-15 assault rifle and .40-caliber Glock pistol by Idah police officers outside Bronner General Hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, on July 8, 2014. The autopsy report revealed that Riley was shot in the chest and hit in the liver as well as her shoulder, back and heart.
Her husband Shane took Riley, pregnant with her fourth child, to the hospital after she threatened to kill herself. When they arrived at the hospital, Riley pulled out a knife forcing her husband to ask the hospital staff to call the police. Within 15 seconds after the cops arrived, she was dead.
Two body cameras and a third attached to a police dashboard leave no ambiguity over what happened that fateful day when a homeless young woman, addicted to methamphetamine and alcohol, paid the price of saying NO to cops.
Riley’s ex-husband, Dana Maddox, is now suing the city for $2 million, as the officers ended his wife’s life as well as her pregnancy with Maddox’s daughter. The suit alleges that “One or more of the above-named police officers [Skyler Ziegler, 29 and Michael Valenzuela, 27] shot and killed Ms Riley, thereby inflicting excessive and unnecessary force upon a mentally disturbed patient who was armed only with a knife. The officers caused a lethal confrontation that any reasonable person could have avoided and they should have been trained to avoid”.
Both officers were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, and no apology has been issued for her death; the department claimed that they followed all proper procedures when they chose to use an AR-15 assault rifle on the mentally ill, pregnant woman. They are yet to explain why a less-than-lethal weapon like a taser was not used instead.
A recent US government study has concluded that there are close to 1,000 people killed by police on an average each year. Another study estimates that at least half of those shot and killed by police in the US have had mental health problems.
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I’m interested to know exactly what training the US police have, nowhere else in the West do police forced have such a laid-back attitude to killing the citizens that they are paid to protect. They have zero ability in conflict resolution and seemingly no interest in assessing situations before going in all guns blazing. Assault rifles to deal with a knife-wielding, mentally ill patient? Seriously? The whole nation should hang its head in shame.
Exactly. This great countries Law Enforcement has become Scary
Sorry, Wayne, but the police in the U.S. Make hundreds of this ands of contacts, such as this one, but without this excessive force. Unfortunately those successful contacts aren’t good for ratings in the media so it may appear to you, wherever you live, that this is the norm in the U.S. And it is not. What you are seeing is .0025% of the police-citizen contacts that go awry due to poorly prepared or over zealous officers. I’m sorry you and the rest of the world has to be subjected to this narrative promoted by the blood thirsty vultures called American “news” media.
I’ve never heard anything as ignorant as what you just wrote..you are actually saying no one should see how people die at the hands of insane,power hungry policemen so that the reputation of the others good cops are not stained by the bloood they shed.. YOU are probably a killer cop yourself,because no person in their right mind would blame the media for showing the truth
I guess English is not your first language or you need to seriously brush up on your reading comprehension. That’s not what he said at all.
not true… the attitude that you are superior is required to be a police officer.
I agree these cops need to be in prison !!!!!!!!!!!!
The sane among us are Wayne.
Yo Wayne, i couldn’t agree anymore with you , they didnt need to shoot her , all they had to do is taser her but no they had to shoot her , these are blood thirsty sick ppl who just because they are officers think that killing is ok…
Not sure if a taser would be a good choice either… she was pregnant, who knows what harm it would do to the baby.
Take could have easily handled the situation with a tazer or pepper spray, could probably have handled the situation just talking with her. Sure would have taken an hour or so, but “don’t have that much time, got my doughnut and coffee break on 10 minutes”, so let’s just fucking shot her with an assault rifle. Seeing this kind of shit just gives me the impression that the US is a uncivilized piss-country full of degenerate cops who hate life.
I’m Just going to say she got what she was asking for. She wanted death by cop and thats what happened when she ran at them with a knife
From the video, she didn’t even make it past the parked cars. Running at them with a knife? Yeah sure. You just justified the murder of 2 people. She was suicidal, she already made an attempt to kill herself, she had a knife which she could of used on herself, she was distressed. Normally when one calls the cops to a situation involving a suicidal person, its the polices duty to calm them down, to de-escalate the situation. What did the police do? Come out of the car with their guns up immediately, barked orders roughly 3 or more times, then shoot immediately in their not-so-confident-shit-their-pants skittish fashion like they usually do as if its a natural reflex (which it kind of is at this point). Here we have the cruel irony. She wanted the cops to come because SHE KNEW that the police are in such a way now, that them arriving on scene to “assist” the situation means certain death.
Let’s just shoot every nut running loose right…?
sad just sad
Why the fuck would you take an AR-15 in the city? Why would you point it at someone holding a knife? Aren’t police officers supposed to be trained to deal with knives? Shot her fucking leg or something if you really feel the need to shoot… Then again, why shoot?:| pepperspray? rubber bullets? tear gas?.. why are the police equipped with deadly weapons?
AR-15??…night stick across the knuckles would have been sufficient. The police will get away with it, but I will pray they never get another peaceful night sleep……ever.
Why don’t you ever show what a Police Officer did positive? This site isnt different to all other Medias, its CNN with anon-name. Stop that anti-police propaganda.
In this case lethal force was allowable based on the 21 foot rule. It takes a person of average athletic ability 3 seconds to go from a standing position to covering 21 ft. It takes someone 2.5-3.5 seconds to draw and fire 2 rounds center mass. So technically someone armed with a knife or some other hand held sharp or blunt weapon could take out an armed person.
With that said if she was obviously pregnant they could have used non lethal tactics to try to take her down. I think these guys were screwed no matter what. Had they used pepper spray or a taser the headlines would have all read Cops use taser or pepper spray on pregnant woman.
While police using lethal or excessive force seems to be the headline of the day some of what I see in the videos is justified others they should be in jail. Just remember most of the video footage gets a creative edit depending on who is showing in the media.
You really think this pregnant woman with a knife and zero training would have taken out this fully trained officer if he wouldn’t have shot her?
mentaly disorder police …..and racist…
Its the fault of the couvernement they let people in america have guns so police are afraid its there life of the life of a criminal or in this case maybe innocent. Stop the law of having guns legaly then then can do there work better.
Stop legalicing weapons and the police can do there jobs better and maybe are less afraid and do not have to shoot so quick.
If we do that then the only people with guns will be criminals. Just because its a law don’t mean the ones who use guns in bad ways will give them up. America has some of the harshest drug laws and we lock up more than any other place in the world. Laws don’t change much because the people will do what they want regardless of some law that gets put into the books.
Dear anonymus! Im a young guy, from Hungary. When u guys need help in this country, maybe i can, when need guns, i try to give. Im not a terrorist, not a suicide man, i dont use drugs, not drinking alcohol, only smoking. When anything need, write for mee. I dont need anything, because i have nothing. Only help for fight, because we are weak alone.
Have a nice day!
Cowards don’t make very good police.
Why kill yourself when the cops can do it for you. She wanted them to “bring it on”! I’ve watched cops in videos where there were people with knives or machetes and they got the person with no shots fired. Talking to them and reasoning is what they did. They defused the problem. These cops are scidish and are not trained well regarding handling the suicidal and other mental illness.
Shit country and shit police.
Why do you allow your police force go around murdering you all ? I am so glad I am not American.
In Norway The cops dont even have guns
This is terror
Scary what happens in our neighbouring country. So glad I live in Canada! I couldn’t even imagine the uproar in my town if the police shot someone and they lived….never mind were kiled!!!!! On the flipside I am sure there are police out there that are great and compassionate and it’s to bad they get a bad rap because of the not so bright ones 🙁 I am glad to see Americans coming together though and protesting peacefully about their plight (Minus Baltimore). I think you guys hsould probably have better regulations and mental prowess testing before anyone is able to don a uniform! My husband thinks it is because these cops just see to much bad stuff everyday and are breaking down. He suggests they provide better counselling for police. Either way what a shame that that poor husband lost a child over it….my thoughts are with him at this difficult time 🙁
i’m from Vienna-Austria…i am so happy, because i live in a Country without so crazy stupid scary Cops.
Amerikans..Stand up together and say NO to your stupid scary Cops!
Great People in a Great Country..but your Gouverment is …..!
God bless not Amerika…God bless the People IN Amerika!!!
Mentally ill woman? Maybe…
Mentally ill police? YES.
This is horrible. I know some of her relatives 🙁
R.I.P. Jeanetta