The Knife in the Garage
At 02:14, Officers Diaz and Kwan respond to a domestic call and find a 31-year-old man standing in a detached garage between a workbench and a parked car, holding an 8-inch kitchen knife in his right hand. He has a shallow cut on his left forearm that is bleeding. His mother waits outside, saying he has been drinking and "talking crazy" since a breakup. When Diaz identifies himself, the man says, "Come in here and I'll cut you." The garage has one pedestrian door and a wide vehicle door that is open. The man is 20-25 feet from the doorway. Officers have a Taser and a patrol rifle. No one else is inside and there is no hostage. The man paces, shouts, and taps the blade against the workbench but does not advance. Backup is 6 minutes out; a CIT officer is on shift but 15 minutes away.
1. What should the officers do in the first two minutes, and how do the Graham factors apply?
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Contain, cover, communicate, buy time. The garage has two exits and no one else inside, so the job is to keep him there without forcing a fight. Take hard cover, not the doorway, with a crossfire-free arrangement: one officer talks, one covers. Request EMS staged for the arm, a supervisor, and the CIT officer. Kill the sirens and cut radio traffic. State the objective out loud - no entry unless he comes out or someone else becomes endangered.
Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989):
- Immediate threat: high - a knife at 20-25 feet with an explicit threat.
- Severity of the crime: serious (aggravated assault, possible domestic battery) but nothing is happening right now.
- Resistance or flight: neither; he is contained and pacing.
Illinois requires de-escalation and warnings before force when feasible (720 ILCS 5/7-5.5). Because time and distance are on the officers' side, entry would raise the risk rather than lower it. A Taser against a knife at 25 feet is not a plan - one missed deployment leaves the officer exposed. The correct answer here is patience, not a breach.
2. The man suddenly advances toward Diaz with the knife raised, closing to 12 feet. Kwan has a clear rifle shot. What does Illinois law permit, and what must happen afterward?
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Deadly force is authorized. 720 ILCS 5/7-5.5 permits deadly force only when the officer reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or another. A man with an 8-inch knife closing from 20 feet to 12 feet after refusing commands meets that standard. The so-called 21-foot rule is a training heuristic, not a legal rule - it neither creates a magic distance nor protects the officer when the subject is 25 feet out and not advancing.
Even so, the rifle shot must be objectively reasonable: backstop, bystanders, and over-penetration into the parked car or neighboring structures matter. A rifle is not automatically reasonable just because a threat exists.
Afterward:
- Stop force the moment the threat ends, then render aid and call EMS.
- Secure the knife and the scene; do not let the mother enter.
- Notify a supervisor, upload body-camera video, and separate the officers before interviews.
- Complete the use-of-force report and written statements, articulating the specific facts known at the moment of the shot.
- If the outcome is death, Illinois requires an independent investigation of the officer-involved death.
3. A minute later the man throws the knife down and runs out the vehicle door, away from the officers. Kwan raises his rifle. May he fire?
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No. Once the knife is on the floor and he is running away, he is unarmed and presents no imminent threat. Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), and 720 ILCS 5/7-5.5 both confine deadly force to preventing imminent death or great bodily harm. A fleeing man who abandoned the weapon is not a lawful target, even though he just committed a serious offense. Aggravated assault is not a forcible felony, and even for a forcible felony, deadly force requires probable cause that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to others.
What is allowed: a foot pursuit, perimeter containment, and non-deadly force if conditions justify it. A Taser on a running man carries a real fall-injury risk and is hard to justify for a misdemeanor-level assault; the better move is to pursue and contain, not to deploy.
Then: recover and photograph the knife, check on the mother, secure the garage, and document the pursuit and the decision not to fire. That decision is part of the use-of-force report, and articulating it is what protects both the officer and the agency.