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Notes -
Here, let me break it down for you. Timestamps are from this video if you want to check it yourself: https://youtube.com/watch?v=U2rMB2fYjuY&rco=1&ab_channel=PoliceActivity
10:37: She clearly takes both hands off the pot and raises them above her head.
10:38: She crouches behind the counter. The pot is visible on the stove. She is no longer holding the pot.
The bodycam is briefly blocked by the officer's arm.
10:40: She is now standing up again and she seems to have picked the pot back up and is now hoisting it over her head. To repeat, she put the pot down and then picked it back up again. I cannot imagine any reason she would have for hoisting a pot of boiling water over her head except to throw it.
also 10:40: The pot leaves her hands. Roughly simultaneously, the officer shoots her. It's hard to tell the exact timeline of events, except...
10:41: The pot lands on the chair in front of her. For this to happen, it must have had considerable forward momentum. It looks to me like she had at least begun to throw the pot when the bullet connected. If not then it should have landed on top of her, not on the chair in front of her.
It's possible (again, hard to break down this 1-second period from Youtube footage) that the cop interrupted her throw by shooting her, which means it quite possibly could have had more momentum if he hadn't shot her. If so, it's possible that if he hadn't shot her it would have hit him and inflicted life-ruining burns. It's also possible he didn't shoot until after she completed her throw, in which case it wouldn't have hit him regardless. Either way, it's clear that she had attempted to inflict life-ruining injuries on him at the time she was shot.
I'm interpreting the vision differently to you. Up until 10:38 we're in agreement: The pot is on the counter, she's crouched down on the floor, the cops have their guns on her, and they're screaming at her to "drop the fucking pot" which she doesn't have.
Then she half-stands up again and appears to be reaching for the pot, and at that point the cop shoots her. I don't see anything that looks like her hoisting the pot over her head.
The pot spills and steam comes up from the water on the floor. I can't see where the pot ends up but I don't see it on the chair.
My interpretation of the video is that these guys with guns repeatedly screaming at her to "drop the fucking pot" when she didn't have it made her reach for it so she could do what they said? Or something?
Edit: Never mind, other camera angle with slow mo does show her throwing the pot and it ending up on the chair.
I still put the blame on the cop in this scenario. I can understand why her throwing the pot would make him pull the trigger, but ultimately this was not a tense or dangerous situation at all until he started threatening to shoot her in the face out of nowhere, and she did not act with lethal force.
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There's no way she's going to throw the water at the cop effectively from the position she's in at 10:40. My read is she was lifting it over her head (possibly to try to place it on the stove), he shot her, and she tipped the pot forward as she died.
It's water, not acid. There's now way she could throw it into his face, which is the only way he was going to get life-ruining burns.
Also, water is heavy. The pot appears to be a least medium size, but probably large, it's a proper pot and she's using two hands. You can't actually throw pots like that very far, especially since the water tends to slosh around making them pretty unwieldy.
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She had already put it down once. You're suggesting that:
She picked the pot up.
She put the pot down.
She took cover behind the counter.
She picked the pot up again and lifted it over her head - while still taking cover - with no intention to do anything with it except put it back on the stove for a second time.
Why? If she didn't intend to throw the pot then why would she bother picking it up again? Remember, at this point in the timeline she's already taken cover behind the counter because the cop threatened to shoot her. What possible reason would she have for picking up the pot after taking cover, except to use it as a weapon?
I could imagine being confused and flustered and having a confused thought like "if they're afraid of the pot of water I'll just take it off the heat and put it away".
Maybe, but the whole - lifting it over her head in a throwing posture makes it less likely that she was planning on putting it away and more likely about to attack the officers with it.
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She's nuts. Also she's being shouted and cursed at by large men with guns, which will fluster anyone, believe me.
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