Records show Tsingine had a lengthy arrest history, including an incident last year when she was accused of trying to grab an officer's gun as he tried to arrest her.
On the day she was killed, Tsingine had been to the Circle K store five times, said a store manager who complained to authorities that Tsingine had taken beer on one visit, and thrown cash at the register as she took a lighter.
During her last visit, she attempted to take several packs of cigarettes, and walked out of the store with a hot dog, prompting the manager to call police, the manager said.
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After Shipley got out of his vehicle, Benally said he saw him grab Tsingine by the wrist, maneuver her to the ground and yell "stop resisting." The officer backed away as Tsingine approached him, and then he fired five times, Benally said.
In another witness account, a woman who lived nearby said Tsingine charged Shipley like "a linebacker," despite her petite frame.
Shipley didn't use a stun gun because he felt Tsingine was too close to him to use it and it was not the right level of force for the situation, he said.
The autopsy for Tsingine shows she was shot twice on the right side of her chest, and twice in the back. One bullet grazed her hand. There appeared to be alcohol in her system but no drugs.
Police video of the encounter shows Tsingine getting up, and then approaching Shipley with scissors in her hand, pointed downward, before she is shot.
. "I tried to pull her to the ground, she fell to the ground. That's when she came up with those scissors right there, so I tried just to push her, shove her away, when you rolled up."
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So this woman, with previous record of fighting with the police, went to that store 5 x that day, and stole something each time. She had to be pretty drunk.
And so when the cop tried to detain her, she fought with hi, tried to get away, he tackles her, and she is able to get up. He backs away, and she, ACCORDING TO A WITNESS, came running at him fast, with scissors in her hand.
What can he do besides shooting at that point? Who wants to take a pair of scissors in the chest from a drunk, running suspect? It does not matter how small she is if she is strong, determined and drunk.
He did not want to kill her. Cops don't want to shoot a woman like that. But they don't want a pair of scissors to their face or chest either. She was drunk, erratic, irrational and aggressive. Are we supposed to ask an officer to wrestle around on the ground with someone who wants to stab them?
It is amazing that the family ignores her actions---running at someone with scissors, and sues the PD instead.