What bad timing in St. Petersburg. Police shoot and kill Julie Goodson

Just days after the St. Petersburg Police Chief was in the paper talking about how safe St. Pete really is, two officers shot and killed Julie Goodson.

The police received a call on 2nd Ave North and the dispatcher could hear what sounded like a commotion in the background, the call was then disconnected. Or as they call it a 911 hang up.

When police arrived on scene just after 2000 hrs, no one would answer the door but they police could hear the same commotion that the dispatcher heard and they decided to break in.

Once they entered the house they saw a woman with a knife or large fork holding another woman down on the ground.

Wonder what kind of large fork it was? When I first read this I was thinking of the large wood fork some people have that’s like 3 feet tall hanging on the kitchen wall. Sorry for the input, but that’s what I was thinking.

Now regardless of the large fork or knife, officers then ordered the woman to let the other woman go. However, she refused. Despite the police orders, she made some kind of positive action (as the police called it) and lunged forward towards the woman being held down on the ground.

And I guess we know what that means, both police officers shot and hit the woman.

The suspect died on scene.

The officers have been placed on administrative leave.

The other woman, Wendy Ott, was treated and released for minor injuries.

The police said they are still investigating the incident but think the two women had a prior relationship and they don’t know the nature of the incident.

Now granted I’m not claiming St. Petersburg is a bad place to live. I just think that at some point and time the city and or county has to realize there is a lot of violent crime there in certain areas and they need to stop sugar coating the truth to help keep those tourist dollars pouring into the city budget.

I’m sure St. Pete is just like any other highly populated area with such a cultural diversity. Crimes happens, just please don’t tell me how safe I am there knowing people are being shot and killed.

If it was really that safe, no one would be getting shot, at all.

One thing I would have liked to see in the paper in the chief’s press release would have been numbers of violent crimes in that area.

He included, the number of arrest and traffic tickets issued last year, but there was nothing about the actual number of violent crimes.

Have no fear, the police are there. Sadly though, the officer may be busy writing traffic tickets before s/he can be available to respond to your call for help.