Knife-Wielding Mother-Of-Two Shot Dead By Police After ‘Stress’ Caused Her To Assault Her Children


A mother-of-two was shot dead on her lawn by police after she went on a knife-wielding rampage. Police were called to the home of the 39-year-old mother, Tiffany Terry, for an assault in progress. When police arrived, Terry burst out of the house wielding three knives, one of which she threw at an officer responding to the call. Police subsequently shot Tiffany six times on her lawn, she later died from her wounds in a nearby hospital.

According to Omaha.com, “stress” from multiple illnesses, pain and alcohol may have caused the mother-of-two to reach her “breaking point” before she was shot by police. Tiffany Terry was “not a monster,” according to her family members. In fact, they note she could “light up a room.” However, on Tuesday, the family says a different side of Tiffany was seen. Kathy O’Neill, Tiffany’s aunt, says that the woman shot on the lawn that day was not the “Tiffany that we knew and loved.”

“It was Tiffany… but the actions were not the Tiffany that we knew and loved. That’s the only explanation we have, is she just got to a breaking point and something snapped.”

O’Neill says she feels that Terry likely snapped because of multiple stresses in her life during that time. Tiffany was suffering from lupus as well as rheumatoid arthritis, which made it difficult for her to function. Tiffany constantly battled pain and had turned to alcohol and medications to ease the burden. O’Neill says that though she doesn’t know what caused Tiffany to “snap” that day, she knows she had to hit a “breaking point” of some kind.

The Daily Mail reports that on the day of the assault, Tiffany’s 9-year-old son, Connor, called his father, George Terry, at work to say something was wrong with his mom.

“Something is going on with mommy and… I’m scared.”

Tiffany was at home with both Connor and his 18-year-old sister. Once police arrived, Tiffany “burst from the house” wielding three knives. Police say she was holding all three knives with one held high above her head. Police told Tiffany to drop the knives multiple times before she eventually threw one of the knives at 23-year-old officer Emilio Luna. After the knife was thrown, police fired six shots into Tiffany. She would later die from her wounds in the hospital.

Following the incident, O’Neill is asking why police had to use deadly force on Tiffany as she did not have a gun.

What do you think? Were the police justified in firing deadly shots at Tiffany Terry since she was throwing knives at officers after multiple warnings to disarm? Could the situation have been handled differently?

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