C/Newburgh - Police Involved Shooting

[billy98988 107]

CITY OF NEWBURGH - Newburgh police officers shot and killed a man Wednesday night after he charged them with a knife in his hand, police said.

Michael Lembhard, 22, reportedly had a warrant for his arrest when officers spotted him about 11:30 p.m. on Liberty Street. Police Lt. Bruce Cambpell said four officers from the street crimes unit apparently chased Lembhard as he ran into an apartment building at 55 Liberty St. Cambpell said police were still sorting out the details early Thursday morning but it appears multiple officers fired when Lembhard came at them with a knife.

Record Online

Mid Hudson News

[87D124 37]

Family & friends along with many residence of wonderful City of Newburgh are saying this guy was assassinated by the CNPD cops. They called the cops "murderers" too........It is very apparent that they do not know the meaning of assassination........it is also clear that they don't understand the definition of murder either.......a police officer protecting his/her own life, protecting the life of another police officer or protecting residents of the City cannot be guilty of murder.

The same people would blame the CNPD for not doing enough if this perp stabbed or killed another resident with his knife. The fact of the matter is that this perp threatened police officer with a weapon & they were well within the law when they used deadly physical force.

[Bnechis 3,961]

In watching the news conference, it was very clear that they only want to hear what they want to hear and anything else can not (in there minds) be the truth.

One lesson here was indentified by Indian Jones

"never bring a knife to a gun fight"

[Just a guy 493]

AS soon as this shooting came out in the news I was sure that the family involved would follow the " skell shot by police " handbook.

These guidelines include :

1. no matter what you thought about the victim, go to the hospital, wait until you see someone with a news camera and then flop on the floor like a fish crying like the victim was your best friend.

2. Make threats toward the police that you will get them for shooting your friend, etc...

3. call for a special prosecutor

4. get t- shirts made with the perps face on it and some catchy slogan like " rest in peace my dude, see you when i get there."

5. no matter how old the perp was, release his communion photo or the picture from his first day of 1st grade to the media and tell them how he was a good person and was ABOUT to get his life back together and go back to school etc... oh i almost forgot, and tell them that he was an aspiring rapper that was about to be signed

6. get a 40 oz. beer box, cut it in half, light candles , put them in the box, put half full 40 oz. beers on the sidewalk around the box for effect.

7. No matter how much of a criminal your family member was, deny it even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

8. when the grand jury returns a decision of No True Bill against the police officers and they are cleared of any wrong doing, repeat flopping on the floor like a fish, then hire some slick attorney that will tell the media that you knew from the begining that you couldn't get a fair and impartial investigation.

9. file a lawsuit against the officers and the city of newburgh.

If I missed any please feel free to add to this list.

This list is obviously an attempt to make a little light of my frustration with the situation. I'm frustrated wih the fact that everything cops do is wrong to society, WE CAN'T WIN. I'm tired of nobody standing up to these families and saying " It was your family membes fault that this happened not the cops, end of story." God Bless my brothers from the Newburgh P.D. They did what they had to do the other night in the face of a deadly threat. The fault for this shooting lies completely with the perp, he shouldn't have committed a crime in the first place, second if he had a warrant ( that he obviously knew about because he ran) then he should have turned himself in. Third, if a team of cops approach you, don't run and fourth, when you are cornered by the cops, don't produce a knife and charge at them. Those are 4 ways this perp could have saved his own life but instead of looking at it rationally, his family would rather blame the cops. I watched that side show that was supposed to be a press conference. Having a public press conference was a mistake, if the chief wanted to give info to the media then you do that, not invite all of liberty street. If he wanted to meet with the family then he should have done it privatly not in a public forum.

Sorry for the long post guys, some things just get to me.

[v85 212]

You forgot the family and friends hiring some "reverends" to act as their spokespeople and hold "peace marches"

[abaduck 123]

Crime Cop, you forgot: hire a lawyer (or should that be 'fall into the hands of a lawyer'?) who will insist the victim was sober and the reason three different labs found him to be drunk on multiple different tests was a 'conspiracy'...

Mike

[FFEMT150 214]

One thing that has always bothered me about these situations is that NO ONE in the media or even in the public seems to think about the officers involved. Do they think that it is easy to pull the trigger on another person? What is that officer thinking right now? Events like this stay with you for the rest of your life. How many times will the officer ask himself if he did the right thing?

My thoughts and prayers go out to these officers during this rough time.

[x129K 1,393]

Cough ...cough...Al Sharpton....cough..

[jack10562 414]

Crime cop hit the nail on the head....I wish I could vote-up your post more than once!

Mostly though, I don't get why the City even needed to hold a "press conference" Just because some punk skel running from cops who were attempting to arrest him on an outstanding warrant, turned on the cops with a knife and left the cops with no choice but to respond with deadly force.

Then they totally failed to control the audience who clearly don't give a crap about civility. After the first audience outburst they should have turned off the mic, shut the lights and said "this press conference is over, go home, goodnight".

[v85 212]

The people in the article, and one of the local civil rights lawyers who appears to have posted a comment say that the police need to be trained to de-escalate situations like this.

Can anyone please tell me how to de-escalate a man wanted for homicide who is charging at you with a knife? There is a time for "verbal judo" and "crisis intervention" and there is a time to take action. This was definately a time for the latter.

[Just a guy 493]

there is no doubt in my mind that if there were no cameras there, this side show would have never have happened. The family and the other " concerned citizens" saw their chance to be on TV and they took it.

If the residents of Newburgh got this angry when they have to walk their kids past people dealing drugs, have to have their kids watch TV on the floor so they don't get hit by a stray round, etc ... then maybe newburgh would be livable but alas, they only get angry when the cops do their jobs, it shows where the priority lies.

As I have said to residents in south Yonkers in the past, you want to get angry at these cops but the cops that work here don't live here and they put their lives on the line every day to make YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD livable. If you could police yourselves then we wouldn't have to be here so in essence it is the people who don't want us around the most who cause us to be in the neighborhood. Kind of ironic.....