Walter Wallace Jr.'s family does not want Philadelphia officers to face murder charges

The family of Walter Wallace Jr. is not calling for the Philadelphia police officers who fatally shot him to be charged with murder, family attorney Shaka Johnson told reporters on Thursday.

"And here's why, here's why: they were improperly trained and did not have the proper equipment by which to effectuate their job," Johnson said.

The comments came after the family watched body camera footage of the moments leading up to Wallace's death, which Johnson said shows him in an "obvious mental health crisis."

[TheZakknafien]

They shouldn’t be charged with anything don’t run at cops with knives

They where never facing murder charges either way.

[MichaelTarrenScott]

What an embarrassment. No one should have anything to say to the police officers that were defending themselves.

[austencave]

It wouldn’t matter if they had tasers, tasers aren’t effective in that short period of time. The officers didn’t decide his sentence was death, the man running after them with a knife decided his own fate. They told him to stop and to drop the knife, don’t blame the cops for protecting themselves in this case

[anonymous-oddo]

because it wasn't murder, it was self defense and if you try to in a murder charge on these officers who are defending themselves it would never stick in the court of law.

[shdownonme]

Why did the family not do their job, which was to have him committed when they knew he was mental.

[EZEgoHard]

Lawyer should have just said "We want money" and saved everyone sometime

[mikeoshea]

The only mistake made was the victim choosing a deadly weapon to threaten and chase police with. Two officers with guns drawn repeatedly telling you to drop the knife. You choose to run at them and try to attack them. That is called bringing a knife to a gunfight. Almost always suicidal. A fight that you engineered or chose. Suicidal. Not murder, not manslaughter. Suicide.

[IhGoogleandApple]

If the officers were brought up on murder charges the entire Philadelphia police force would not answer calls like these. Send in the psychologist and if they get stabbed to death they should have done a better job trying to de escalate the situation. Next psychologist step up and take a swing at this psycho.

[muffinxcancer]

It's always someone else's fault, no matter what they did. Stop playing the victim.

[Paula-Heels]

This is the usual, the black family don’t want justice but they want the money. They know this officer is not at fault on this one.

[alfredocespinoza]

The officers r trained to (Protect and To Serve).
If they think cops r racist, y did they call them..? They should have handled it themselves
or called his homies instead.
If people knew him in his neighborhood, they should have stopped him, ....
Those cops saved the lives of every one in that home...👍🏽

[robertmartin]

So the officers were faced with a man brandishing a knife. Does that mean they should have expected to only be wounded and therefore not have shot?? The officers used deadly force because that's what they were up against the second the knife came out. Period.

[Geekygordon]

They had the equipment they needed for the job they were doing. THEY ARE NOT THERE TO DE-ESCALATE SOMEONE COMING AT THEM WITH A KNIFE! Family should have done that if it was so easy.

[marlonelmorefreedomisoursn]

Here's a scenario: you have someone with a brandished weapon; let's say a knife or a tire rod... and you are the police officer with the taser out the guy is within reaches of you; you pop him with that taser but he still comes at you and now the distance is shortened severely... what do you think will happen next 🤷🏿‍♂️

[cosmosdarkallince]

This young man should run for office in Phila He would be a asset to the city,

[NJDRONEMAN]

What a good lawyer . Not to ask for charges of murder . The cops didn’t have a choice

[anonymous-oddo]

My question is what did the gentleman holding a knife running after the officers do wrong? Stop pointing out what the cops did wrong and stop alluding to the fact that you will ever get to try these officers for murder or anything like it when it is clearly self-defense. Thank God for the cameras..

[leepop]

How they going to charge offices with murder when one day did not have tasers that's number one second the guy had a knife the guy had a deadly weapon in his hands walking towards them so how you going to charge somebody for doing a job for murder which is mind-boggling to me like now people are going to charge a officer for defending themselves against a guy with a night where you were going to go take a guy on with a knife if the guy has a blade or knife he has a deadly weapon he's going to cut you he might cut your vein and get you and you know I'm saying like this is crazy what's going on right now with this whole policing versus the people they want to charge people doing their job for murder you know what they just not have cops carry guns. And let them handle it without being armed then let see what what happens after that

[wrldonwill]

You can tell the lawyer spent all last night watching the best of Denzel. Dog-and-pony show if I ever did see one.