Last Friday a woman called 911 seeking medical assistance after she suspected that her fiancé may have taken too much insulin. Instead of an ambulance, police responded to the Waycross, Georgia home to what they say was a suicide attempt. Shortly after their arrival, 43-year-old Jack Lamar Roberson, is shot and killed for acting aggressively and “lunged” at the officers with two “weapons” while in diabetic distress (hypoglycemia or “diabetic shock” is no joke).
What were the weapons? Well, according to according to Roberson’s fiancé, Alicia Herron who witnessed the incident as reported by First Coast News: “He didn’t have nothing in his hands at any time or period at all before they came, any time while they were here, anything. They just came in and shot him. He didn’t say nothing, the police didn’t say nothing, anything, it was like a silent movie. You couldn’t hear anything, all you could hear were the gun shots go off and I seen them going into his body and he just fell down.” Police still insist that he was armed, and that the shooting was justified. However, they refuse to say or “identify the “weapons” Roberson was allegedly armed with when he “lunged” at them.
Roberson’s mother, Diane Roberson, was also a witness and told a similar story to WJXT: “We called 911 for my son cause he wasn’t feeling good so instead of 911 coming, the police came and they rushed in and my son came out of the kitchen, him and my daughter-in-law. Police rushed in and my son went to the living room door. The police came in, pulled his gun out, my son put his hands up and they shot him, they shot him down.”
I don’t have much to say other than this stuff is getting old. Apparently this is not the case for police officers across the country. Yep, and I’m beginning to think that being able to shoot unarmed people of color is a special skill set or a job requirement for cops.
As someone who is diabetic and who knows all too well the danger of being hypoglycemic (ask this diabetic driver). It’s hard for me to understand why the police arrived at the home before an ambulance. Okay, so let’s say that they were in fact responding to what they thought was a situation involving a suicidal person. Did they have to do the Dr. Jack Kervorkian thing and assist a suicidal individual with carrying out their intentions. I’m sorry, but this story is very sad. Who knew hypoglycemia was a reason to be killed? Next you’re going to tell me that cops in America shoot unarmed black people who seek help for no apparent reason.