Police have released more information on shooting death of a 17-year-old girl at the Longview, Texas, police station, including surveillance footage of the incident. They had not released many details immediately following the incident, leaving questions about what had transpired.
Longview Police Chief Don Dingler on Wednesday said that Kristiana Coignard charged at police officers with a butcher knife before she was shot and killed last week, according to the Longview News-Journal. Police also said she had “I have a gun” written on her hand.
According to the surveillance footage, Coignard entered the station, called to ask for an officer, and waited for someone to arrive in the lobby of the police station. The incident occured at the edge of the surveillance camera field and does not include audio, making it hard to decipher exactly what took place.
The responding officer, identified as Glenn Derr, arrived and spoke to Coignard. She backed away from him, and he then pinned her to a bench on the police station. After a few minutes, Derr helped Coignard up off of the bench, but quickly tackled her to the ground facedown. Derr then stepped away and appears to have his gun drawn.
Two additional police officers, identified as Gene Duffie and Grace Bagley, arrived in the lobby of the station. Coignard then charged at Derr. Police claim that by this point, she had drawn a knife.
Police said that Duffie deployed his Taser, but it did not subdue Coignard. According to police, Derr fired his gun three times, and Bagley fired her gun twice. Coignard then fell to the ground.
Coignard’s aunt Heather Robertson, with whom the teenager was living at the time, told ThinkProgress that Coignard struggled with mental illness, including depression and bipolar disorder.
Watch the surveillance video via the News-Journal. Be warned, the video is graphic.
He had her subdued, face down on the ground. Then for some reason let her up, and pulled his gun. Why?
This is insane. He was clearly the aggressor the entire time. There were multiple instances in which he had her in “custody,” but did not handcuff her. Why? I wonder if they new each other and there was some history here?
Also, where is the butcher knife that they “claimed” she was holding - and why in the world, assuming it exists anywhere other than his imagination, did he not take it away when he had her in custody?
Why did he pin her to the bench in the first place? Why did he let her get up? Where were the other officers? This girl may have had a knife, but that was some poor handling of the situation by the officer. This should be used as a training video for police as they show officers exactly what not to do.
A grown man should be able to take a knife away from an unstable 17 year old girl without resorting to shooting her 3 fucking times.