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Preventing 'Suicide By Cop'

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(comedy_nose/Flickr)
(comedy_nose/Flickr)

Authorities in Long Island are investigating the death of a 31 year-old man last Tuesday.  They say he may have died in the way he intended to, in a hail of police bullets, or in what's known as "suicide by cop."

There is a growing movement to train police officers not to kill citizens, even when, those citizens seem to be asking for it. After her son provoked a police officer to shoot him in 1997, Louise Pyers formed a group to convince police chiefs across Connecticut to pay more attention to the phenomenon. Pyers' group, the Connecticut Alliance to Benefit Law Enforcement, now trains police officers to deal with these situations. Pyers joins us, along with journalist Julia Dahl, who writes about this subject in Miller-McCune Magazine.

This segment aired on March 10, 2011.

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