The Knife in the Garage Doorway: Time, Distance, and a Decision Not to Shoot
At 2140 hours you are the first unit at a domestic disturbance on a rural Cass County property. A woman meets you at the end of the driveway, shaking. She says her husband threw a kitchen chair at her, missed, then grabbed a 10-inch chef's knife and said he would "end it." She has no visible injuries, and the couple's two children, ages 7 and 10, are inside the house. The man is now standing in the open garage doorway about 35 feet away, holding the knife at his side, yelling "just shoot me" and "get off my property." He has not advanced, but he paces and switches the knife between hands. Your partner is four minutes out. You have a Taser on your belt, a patrol rifle in the car, and the engine block of your cruiser is two steps behind you. Two neighbors are standing in their yards watching.
1. State the force options legally available to you at this moment and the constitutional and North Dakota standards that govern them. Explain why "he has a knife" does not by itself settle the question.
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Constitutional floor. Graham v. Connor asks whether the force was objectively reasonable given the severity of the crime, the immediate threat, and whether he was actively resisting or fleeing. Tennessee v. Garner limits deadly force to suspects who pose a significant threat of death or serious bodily injury, with a warning where feasible.
North Dakota law. NDCC 12.1-05-02 justifies a public officer's use of force to the extent reasonably necessary to effect an arrest or prevent escape, and limits deadly force to preventing death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another person. NDCC 12.1-05-03 supplies the self-defense and defense-of-others framework.
Applying it. The legal question is not the presence of a knife; it is whether he has the ability, the opportunity, and a manifest intent to cause death or serious injury, and whether that threat is imminent. Right now: he is stationary, he has made no move toward the woman, the children, or you, and 35 feet with cover available gives you time. That is a threat, but not yet an imminent one, so deadly force is not justified at this instant and a reasonable officer would not be second-guessed for holding. It is also not forbidden if he closes the distance deliberately, because 35 feet is not a safety guarantee; a determined attacker can cover it faster than many officers expect.
What is available now: verbal control, cover, distance, containment, the Taser if he closes and circumstances permit, and the rifle as a contingency, not a plan. The children inside are a factor that raises urgency if he moves toward the house.
2. You decide to hold, talk, and wait. Defend that decision tactically and identify the two developments that would force a change.
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The defense of waiting. Every second you hold adds a resource and subtracts a risk. You gain your partner, a supervisor, a less-lethal option, an ambulance, and possibly a negotiator; you lose nothing except the chance of a confrontation. Waiting also keeps the decision in your hands rather than handing it to a man who is asking to be shot. A "suicide by cop" appeal is a warning sign, not a command to comply with it.
Tactically you back to the cruiser's engine block, keep a low silhouette, turn off the light bar, designate one voice as contact with a name and calm tone, ask about his kids and his service rather than repeating commands, and move the wife and neighbors out of the line of fire. You put the rifle away for now so the only escalation is his choice, not your equipment.
Development one: he moves. Any deliberate advance toward you, the woman, or the house, or a change from holding the knife at his side to a raised, ready position while closing distance. At that point the threat is imminent and force, up to deadly force, becomes justified if lesser options cannot be applied in time.
Development two: he turns the knife on himself. That is a medical emergency, not a justification for shooting him. ND deadly-force authority exists to stop a threat to others, not to prevent a suicide by bullet. Your tools there are distance, time, Taser or a hands-on disarm if the situation permits, and an ambulance already en route.
3. After the call resolves with no force used, how do you document a decision that produced nothing to photograph?
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Write the report as an account of a threat assessment over time, not as a gap in the narrative. Include:
- The objective scene: distances, the knife's description, lighting, weather, what cover you used, where the neighbors stood, where the children were.
- His words in quotes, and the times he said them.
- Every command and question you gave, and his response to each.
- The options you considered and why you did not use them, stated factually: "I did not deploy the Taser because he remained at 35 feet and was not advancing."
- Resources requested and their arrival times, because they justify the waiting strategy.
- The resolution and disposition: how he was taken into custody or evaluated, who transported him, and what happened to the knife.
The reason for the detail is that the highest-risk lawsuit after an incident like this is often the one about the force you did not use, filed by the woman or the neighbors. A report that says only "situation resolved peacefully" cannot answer it. The same report protects you if force is used in 30 seconds: it shows a continuum of judgment rather than a snap decision.