Iraq Veteran Marine Icarus Randolph Casualty of War on Front Lawn

UPDATE

Judge: Wichita officer’s shooting vet with PTSD reasonable

November 30, 2017

Mentally ill Marine’s family says Wichita police let situation escalate before his fatal shooting
THE WICHITA EAGLE
BY TIM POTTER
10/04/2014

“I never would have guessed in a million years that my son would have been shot down in my front yard in front of me,” Beverly Allen said.

On July 4, Icarus Randolph woke up in a bad mental place.

The 26-year-old Marine veteran had served in Iraq and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, his family says.

That afternoon, he became a casualty on his mother’s front lawn when a Wichita police officer shot him in front of his family. Then-Police Chief Norman Williams said the officer fired the fatal shots after Randolph charged with a knife.

It was supposed to be a good day at the family home on East Clay, near Rock and Lincoln. Randolph’s mother planned a cook-out. But when Beverly Allen returned from the store, her son’s eyes told her he was upset. She knew it was serious enough to call for help and ended up talking to a 911 dispatcher.

The purpose that day, his family says, was to get help for him. Instead, they say, the two police officers sent to the home allowed the situation to escalate.

One officer – the one who fired the shots – spent crucial minutes arguing with the family in the small front yard when he should have been trying to diffuse things before Randolph came out of a door with a knife, says his older sister, Ida Allen.
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