Many questions remain as shooting anniversary nears

This July will mark the 5th anniversary of the killing of a mentally disturbed woman by Sandpoint city police. Jeanetta Marie Riley was a 100-pound, pregnant Native American woman who was shot to death outside the Bonner General Health on July 8, 2014. About three bullets hit the hospital behind Jeanetta, who was armed with only a small serrated steak knife.

This killing by the police was totally unnecessary and reckless.

We’ve all heard about the 21-foot rule. After viewing the video of the shooting on YouTube (Jeannette Riley killed by Police 1), it is clear that it was the police officers who were closing the 21-foot distance much more so than Mrs. Riley. Also, the video clearly shows the officers did absolutely nothing to try and de-escalate the situation. It was these officers who actually escalated the situation by yelling at and aggressively approaching Riley.

Sandpoint police could learn a lot from a YouTube video (UK cops disarm man wielding a machete) showing the disarming of a large 200+ pound machete wielding man by police in London, England.

I would like the Sandpoint Police Department to know that a friend of mine (who was a medic in Vietnam) and two of his coworkers would routinely disarm angry ,em with knives in a Seattle hospital’s battered women’s ward where my friend worked as a nurse. They never used lethal force to disarm them.

LEE SANTA

Sandpoint