Kajieme Powell Shooting: Doesn't the St. Louis Police Department have Tasers?

A video was released today of the shooting of 25-year-old African-American Kajieme Powell by St. Louis police officers which occurred yesterday a few miles from where Michael Brown was killed August 9th:


Last night I posted a blog with my take concerning the shooting of 'Big' Mike Brown, which strikes me as a case of suicide-by-cop by a young man uneasy about his upcoming college challenges.  I believe Officer Darren Wilson was justified in using lethal force when he was (most likely) charged by the 6' 4", 290-pound seemingly irrational youth.  Of course, the better response for Officer Wilson would have been to use a Taser, but I think he was caught off-guard and already had his gun drawn from a struggle that had occurred in the police vehicle.
While Officer Wilson's use of lethal force may have been warranted, what one sees in the video above seems plain wrong.  Kajieme Powell is clearly a mentally disturbed individual seeking to commit suicide-by-cop. He is brandishing what looks like a minimal knife while yelling, "Shoot me!" Why were these officers so willing to fulfill Kajieme's irrational pursuit of death?  
What might be important here is what the dispatcher communicated to the officers sent to the crime which, in this case, was the petty theft of two cans of soda.  
 
I have to presume information was relayed to alert the officers about the mental health background of Kajieme.  (Although that he was mentally disturbed should have been obvious enough by his seemingly suicidal actions.) Why not prepare to taser him rather than shoot him dead upon arriving at the scene?  Doesn't the St. Louis police department have Tasers?
Seriously....what we witness in the video above is wrong.  Police officers are supposed to train for and enforce "public safety", not public endangerment.   
I guess I may be a little more sympathetic to the rage of Ferguson protesters now, although I think they are focused on the wrong incident.
Meanwhile, President Obama is playing golf in Martha's Vineyard...

BREAKING NEWS: Dorian Johnson recants - Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson will be cleared in the shooting of Michael Brown

“On my side of town, When the sun go down, You in trouble now.” -Big Mike Brown

Tonight, on the Facebook page for the radio station "The Viper" 100.7 FM in St. Louis, the above image was posted along with the following text:

***BREAKING NEWS***Remember, you saw it and heard it here first. We have heard (from a VERY connected national media source) that Ferguson officer Darren Wilson will be cleared in the shooting of Michael Brown. The key: Dorian Johnson has now admitted that Michael Brown attacked Officer Wilson and attempted to take his gun. OFFICER WILSON WILL NOT BE CHARGED! This is scary. When this news is made official, we all have reason to be concerned about the reaction.

To substantiate the claim, the poster notes:

For the record....WE broke the autopsy results ON SATURDAY NIGHT, RIGHT HERE. Every detail that WE reported, (6 shots, none in the back, marijuana etc) were all confirmed on Monday.Our info has been right on, and I have no reason to doubt this. Is it a guarantee? No. That would be silly.

Is this true?

If not yet, it likely soon will be.

Here is the eyewitness testimony of Dorian Johnson from the day of Michael Brown's shooting:

Did Darian tell the truth?  Unfortunately, the emerging evidence suggests otherwise.
First off, given the release of autopsy results, it's clear that Michael Brown was never shot in the back as the gunshot wounds are in the front of his body.
Furthermore, Officer Wilson reportedly suffered an “orbital blowout fracture to his eye socket” during his scuffle with Mike Brown in his police vehicle.  That requires the the shooting victim must have punched Officer Wilson when he was in the police vehicle.
Finally, other witnesses saw Michael Brown charge Officer Wilson as he discharged his weapon:

So how did Mike Brown's shooting really unfold?  The following explanation by a friend of Officer Wilson's wife is most likely the truth about what happened:

On Sunday, St. Louis Post-Dispatch crime reporter Christine Byers tweeted:  “Police sources tell me more than a dozen witnesses have corroborated cop’s version of events in shooting Ferguson.” Given what most likely really happened, why did Dorian Johnson make such an inflammatory false testimony about how his friend was killed?  I think the problem was that he was interviewed in the midst of a very racially charged situation where his peers were looking for him to answer in a way that would paint the police in a negative light.  After all, his dead friend couldn't be the bad guy, especially when everyone around him knows the police are.  Hence, he relented to the peer pressure and said what he thought those around him wanted to hear.
However, now that there's forensic evidence and other eyewitness testimonies going against Dorian's testimony, along with proof of his involvement with a strong-armed robbery just before the shooting, it would come as no surprise if Michael Brown's friend has recanted his earlier testimony to law enforcement authorities.  
The problem is, how can the now widely believed false narrative, embodied in the protesters' slogan,  "Hands up! Don't shoot!", be undone?
What's more, how can Officer Wilson be acquitted for justifiably shooting "Big Mike" after being attacked in his police vehicle and then bum rushed by the 6' 4", 290 pound youth?
The reality is that the "justice" Michael Brown's mother and much of the Ferguson, and even nationwide, black community are seeking, i.e., the arrest of Officer Wilson, would be an injustice.

If justice is to be served in the memory of Michael Brown, then people should consider what truly went wrong for him.
Michael had done right by his family in graduating from high school and getting into college .

The day he died, he was two days from starting college.  Undoubtedly he was stressing out about the challenges and responsibilities of adulthood approaching him.  I think "Big Mike" was torn between the idea of hanging back with his friends 'in the hood' and making his way as a "real n****r" (from his lyrics) hip hop artist versus going to college and making something of himself as his family was expecting.  ("Proud graduate for Mom and Dad / proved everybody wrong / wishing hoping and praying I can bring my n****s along.") 
That this tug-of-war was going on in his mind is suggested by how, in the weeks prior to his shooting, Michael posted his rap music on the internet.  One lyric set seems particularly telling, "Til I die / rise and grind / gotta get mine / no nine to five / 'til I die".
With that philosophy in mind, Big Mike - who had pretty much been a good-natured soul up to that point in life - smoked some dope with his buddy Dorian, headed off to the local convenience store and committed a strong-armed robbery of, of all things, a package of cigars to smoke more pot with.  A few minutes later he ran into Officer Wilson and, once word filtered through about the recent local theft, a violent altercation took place where young Mike effectively committed suicide-by-cop in his torn state-of-mind.

So to truly honor the life and loss of Big Mike Brown, I think it's time for America's black community to step up to the plate and denounce the oppressive, thuggish, depraved hip-hop culture that drew this good young man away from making something respectable of himself and into a volley of gun shots fired by a white police officer more upset by what happened than anything these foolish protesters in Ferguson would like to know.
JMHO