Springfield Police officer involved in deadly shooting
By
KSPR News
Story Created:
Jul 24, 2008
Story Updated:
Jul 24, 2008
A man is dead Thursday and a Springfield police officer on administrative leave after an early morning shooting.
Around 1:45, police responded to a domestic violence call on east Elm.
When police arrived, a woman said her attacker, 43 year old Donald Gaches, moved to an upstairs apartment.
Officers went to the apartment and negotiated with him for a few minutes.
Police said the door suddenly flew open and Gaches lunged at Officer Jeff Ferneau with a knife.
Ferneau shot and killed the suspect.
"When you are in a deadly force confrontation there's not often time to tell the person to drop the weapon or to back up or to make a verbal statement or use other lower levels of force. When somebody's confronting you with deadly force you have to respond with deadly force and that's what the officer did," Major Don Clark with the Springfield Police Department said.
While the incident is investigated... Ferneau is on paid administrative leave.
This wasn't Gaches first run-in with the law.
Over the past six years he was responsible for four domestic assaults and four exparte violations, among many other convictions.
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Tuesday, Aug 5 at 1:13 AM TOPGUN wrote ...
We have had our 17th involved police shooting so far this year in Jacksonville, Fl. Many suspects have died and a few officers shot but have lived. When will the public realize that if a suspect will attack a police officer he or she will do even that much more harm to a citizen.
Thursday, Jul 24 at 8:17 PM Jeremy wrote ...
Carey, Where do you get your information? How many years have you been a law enforcement officer? How many hours of constitutional law do you have? How many nights have you put on a gun, badge, and vest and and promised your family you would be home soon and safe, knowing that may not be true? When was "last time you checked"? And where did you check? We don't shoot to wound (i.e. the leg) we shoot to stop aggression and protect ourselves and others.
Thursday, Jul 24 at 5:23 PM Carey wrote ...
This officer didn't do the right thing. The man they shot was not that big of a threat i know because I was a personal friend. The woman he hit attacked him first a few days ago with brass knuckles and I am sure she was coming back for more. Plus the last time I checked the police are suppose to handle these situation with other means of force like pepper spray or even taser guns. What happened with shooting someone in the leg even but to shoot a man with a small pocket knife is outrages
Thursday, Jul 24 at 10:10 AM Robert wrote ...
This officer did the right thing, hooray for the good guys, a greater number of the criminals today have no fear or respect of the law, because there are so many laws to protect them, and they know they can hide behind them. in many instances police have there hands tied. if your a convicted criminal and a repeated offender you should have no rights at all! when someone you love gets murdered, raped, robbed, or hurt you'll agree with me
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