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Officer’s Attorney Says ‘Situation Unraveled’ Quickly

FREDONIA — An attorney representing a Fredonia police officer who shot an adult male says the “whole situation unraveled in under a minute.”

In an interview Tuesday afternoon with Tom H. Burton, the OBSERVER learned the subject was not the only individual in the home and was covered in blood during the shooting. According to Burton, the officer’s perception was that the man was in distress.

The officer involved arrived with responders from the Fredonia Fire Department for an unknown medical emergency. Upon arrival, the man was found to be locked in the bathroom.

The responders attempted to enter the room resulting in the individual coming out, covered in blood, allegedly with a knife held in his uplifted hand.

“The immediate action the officer had, was to put distance between himself and the assailant,” Burton stated. “The whole situation unraveled in under a minute.”

According to Burton no shots were fired in the house, all were outside.

Following the gunfire, a second officer showed up, and it wasn’t long after that Fredonia Police called in the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office and the New York State Police for further assistance. These agencies managed to secure a number of eyewitnesses from the scene.

“We expect police officers to go forward, to be steadfast, where a citizen has no duty to get involved,” Burton said. “That’s why (a state statute) gives significant leeway to an officer in these life or death circumstances.”

Burton did share with the OBSERVER the Fredonia officer was armed with a taser in addition to a sidearm, However, Burton said, that in the split-second situation, the officer didn’t have time to get it out.

Burton said under New York law, the officer never has a duty to flee from the face of physical force, all an officer needs is a reasonable confrontation with the use of imminent deadly force before he can respond in kind.

“It doesn’t get any more imminent than someone trying to stab the officer with an uplifted knife,” Burton added.

According to the county District Attorney’s Office on this kind of case, the state Attorney General has to weigh in with a decision first.

As it stands, the situation rests with the Attorney General’s Office, which had no statement as of Tuesday afternoon.

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