Neighbors claim police took an hour to break in to where son attacking mother with sword

[RamboLiberal]

Neighbors of a Brooklyn woman savagely slashed to death by her deranged, sword-wielding son claim cops refused to enter her apartment early Tuesday despite their pleas.

When cops finally got inside the Prospect Heights home, they found Yannick Brea kneeling with fatal lacerations to her head in a blood-spattered bathroom.

The son, holding the three-foot sword and babbling about religion and repentance, was arrested in a nearby bedroom, police said.

"I could hear her groaning inside ... She was still alive, but they wouldn't go in," said Clinton Clare, 52, who lived in the apartment below the Brea family.

Clare estimated police waited an hour before bursting into the apartment, where neighbors heard Michael Brea, 31, delivering a terrifying rant at his doomed mother.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/11/23/2010-11-23_brooklyn_mom_stabbed_to_death_with_sword_by_her_son_police_say.html#ixzz16ApPkdZ6

If this is true IMHO the police screwed up on this one.

[krispos42]

1. Guns are all offense and no defense

And we know that even multiple shots (excluding a brain/upper spinal cord hit) takes a minimum of 12 seconds to make somebody lose enough blood to pass out, assuming that person was beserk or on drugs.

A sword-swinging berserker, even facing down armed cops, could do serious damage before going down under a hail of gunfire.

What they needed was tear gas, a sniper, or some bayonet-tipped M-14s for the cops to bust in with. And even that that's iffy for close-quarters combat with a long edged weapon.

[uncle ray]

3. what is your point? the OP nor the linked article even mentions guns.

and passing out from loss of blood is far from the only way for a gun to incapacitate someone if that were even being discussed here.

[krispos42]

5. Guns are the primary instrument of violence in a life-threatening police situation

More importantly, all the cops there had guns and none of them dared take the person on face-to-face for over an hour. Therefore a discussion of why the gun-toting cops didn't take down a murderer with a sword would seem to be appropriate.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I suspect witnesses suffered from time dilation

as well as a good lock. Yes, cops would have a heck of a time getting into my pad through the front door.

More than a few times family of patients screamed at us for taking forever, (even two hours) when our logs showed we took 20 minutes.

As is, this is a tragedy and the department should have a full call review... That is what we did like standard.

[RamboLiberal]

4. More info and it does look like Police screwed up on this one

-----

Police received three 911 calls in four minutes after neighbors in the four-story Prospect Heights building heard Michael Brea's high-decibel harangue and his mother's shrieks for help.

"Her screams woke me up," said one neighbor. "Screams I'll never forget."

When police arrived around 1:15 a.m., they met neighbors urging them to head inside - but opted to stay in the hallway despite the commotion.

"At one point, the mother opened the window and screamed, 'Help, he's going to kill me!' " said neighbor Andrea Natoli, 25. "I saw blood on the window sill. Blood all over it."

Cops left but returned after yet another 911 call at 1:59 a.m., a police source said. They were greeted by a neighbor who persuaded cops to enter by pointing out a blood-smeared, second-floor window.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/11/24/2010-11-24_swordswinging_ugly_betty_actor_michael_brea_slays_mother_for_being_sinner_police.html#ixzz16EcFqs6b