When American police confront a knife wielding suspect charging right at them, what exactly happens? Hello everyone. Before diving into the details, we will analyze these situations from a legal perspective, focusing specifically on the use of force continuum and the landmark Supreme Court precedent regarding police use of force. Our first case today takes us to a hot spot in Marian County, Florida. The suspect is identified as 38-year-old Herabberto Medina Marquez, an individual with a lengthy criminal record. Here is how the crime and the breathtaking arrest unfolded. At 5:00 p.m. on May 13th, 2026, the Marian County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call. The caller reported a man causing a disturbance, cursing, and flipping him off on the road, hoping police would arrive quickly to check it out. Immediately after receiving the dispatch, Officer Robert Fitch rushed to the scene to handle the situation. Officer Fitch stepped out of his vehicle the moment he spotted the suspect. But right then, the suspect instantly charged and stabbed him. Officer Fitch had absolutely no time to react and was knocked straight to the ground. Medina Marquez lunged in again to land several more knife strikes. After taking multiple stab wounds, the officer managed to draw his firearm. Seeing this, Medina Marquez turned and fled, vanishing into the woods in the blink of an eye. Officer Fitch was stabbed multiple times, but didn't even have time to check his injuries. Fueled by adrenaline, the officer pushed through the pain to track down the suspect. Because of the suspect's evasion skills, combined with his green shirt, the dense woods turned into a high stakes arena of life and death. At any second, the suspect could ambush him out of nowhere and attack once again. >> So, the officer decided to head back to the main road to catch his breath and to let everyone watching take a breather, too. >> Fortunately, the officer's injuries didn't appear to be life-threatening. After searching along the road for a while, backup units began to arrive. Under Officer Fitch's direction, all officers maintained a tight perimeter and search pattern along the main road. 4 minutes later, officer Fitch suddenly spotted Medina Marquez. After ignoring the officer's commands, Medina Marquez took off running again. Police immediately pursued and closed in on him. It seems Medina Marquez finally realized the gravity of the situation. He unexpectedly complied, dropping prone onto his stomach to surrender. From a tactical standpoint, when a suspect transitions from active aggression to active compliance, officers immediately employ deescalation tactics and stand down from lethal force. Right after, officers moved in to make the arrest. This time, the apprehension went smoothly. The police found a few cuts on Medina Marquez, and after providing basic medical attention, they loaded him into the cruiser. Yet even then, Medina Marquez didn't stop threatening the officers. According to the police investigation report, Medina Marquez was a literal cop hunter. He had been arrested twice before for assaulting law enforcement officers. In one incident, he knocked out an officer's tooth. In another, he wielded a weapon to attack multiple officers before being subdued with a taser. On top of that, he had a record for criminal trespassing and theft. Medina Marquez's family stated that due to chronic substance abuse, he suffered from severe mental health issues. On the day of the incident, after consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms, he suffered a psychotic break and was triggered to attack the police. At the scene, police recovered two folding pocket knives. The suspect used one of them to stab Officer Fitch multiple times, inflicting several lacerations to his arm and chest. Fortunately, the wounds were superficial. Marian County Sheriff Paul Bloom stated that the standard soft body armor officers wear daily is primarily designed for ballistic protection and offers absolutely no slash or stab resistance against knives. Considering the extreme danger officer Fitch faced, his survival is nothing short of a miracle and a blessing. Moving forward, Medina Marquez faces charges of first-degree attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. Given his violent history and the egregious nature of the act, the state attorney will seek a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. While our first case concluded with the suspect surrendering and facing life in prison, our second footage demonstrates how rapidly a routine interaction can morph into a fight for survival, forcing law enforcement to deploy deadly force. Now, moving on from our first attacker, let's head over to East Lancing, Michigan to analyze another intense knife attack on police that took place on April 15th, 2026. An employee at Marco's Pizza called 911, reporting a man posing as a delivery driver inside the store. Following his apprehension, police identified the suspect as 21-year-old Isaiah Kirby. Rewinding back to the start of the incident, security footage shows Kirby approaching the counter. Employees asked him to provide the order pickup code for the customer. After pretending to check his phone for a moment, Kirby walked straight into the food prep area, grabbed a slice of pizza, and started eating it. His bizarre behavior left the staff completely stunned. Shortly after, Kirby left the store with the pizza, but it wasn't long before he returned. Luckily, the staff was prepared this time and several male employees managed to restrain him. Realizing he was overpowered, Kirby turned and walked away. The suspect went back to his vehicle, pulled out a knife, and began loitering around the area. The employees and customers were terrified, immediately locking the front door, pulling out their phones to record the scene, and calling 911. While the employee was on the phone with dispatch, a well-known 63-year-old local attorney, Douglas Mock, happened to be walking through the parking lot. Kirby, armed with the knife, lunged toward him. Kirby pulled out the knife and executed his assault in a split second. By the time the employee panned the camera back over, attorney Mock was covered in blood, his life hanging by a thread. A good Samaritan used a towel to apply pressure and stop attorney Mock's bleeding while other concerned citizens called for emergency medical help. Responding immediately, East Lancing police officers Beck Martin, Brennan Surman, Benjamin Sailor, and rookie officer Zayn Johnson tracked the suspect based on dispatch updates and quickly located Kirby. The moment Kirby spotted the police, he charged directly at them. At this exact moment, Kirby's aggressive charge triggered the 21 ft rule, also known as the Tuler drill. When an individual armed with an edged weapon closes within 21 ft, roughly 6.4 m, officers are legally justified in assessing the situation as an imminent threat of great bodily harm. Multiple officers on scene opened fire. This is the footage from the bodywn camera of Officer Beck Martin, who was the first to discharge his firearm. Because he was in the closest proximity to Kirby, Officer Beck fired the initial shots for public safety, dropping Kirby to the ground. Officer Brennan fired right after. His primary objective was to deploy a 40mm less lethal sponge round to stop Kirby. However, due to the extreme speed at which Kirby was advancing, the officer immediately transitioned away from the less lethal platform to his service pistol to neutralize the threat. Following the initial volley, Kirby collapsed, but remained fully conscious. At that point, he attempted to use the knife to take his own life. Rookie officer Zayn stepped forward and fired again to stop him. After being struck by three rounds, Kirby abandoned the suicide attempt, but refused to surrender. Continuing to crawl forward, Officer Beck readied his taser to deploy compliance measures, while rookie officer Zayn and Officer Benjamin rushed up and fired once more. Finally, let's review the synchronized angles from all four officers to see exactly how the entire incident unfolded. After three separate volleys of gunfire, Kirby was finally incapacitated and slumped onto the pavement. By this time, multiple backup units swarmed the scene. Five officers established a dynamic tactical perimeter, repeatedly ordering Kirby to drop the weapon and surrender. Once the scene was deemed safe, officers deployed ballistic shields, formed a stack, and advanced to take Kirby into custody and immediately administer emergency medical aid. Simultaneously, several officers broke off to render aid to attorney Mock. As we can see, Mock had sustained at least a dozen stab wounds and was in critical condition. After officers performed basic field trauma care, paramedics rushed Mock to the hospital for emergency surgery. Meanwhile, Kirby was pronounced dead at the scene. Following the incident, investigators recovered a folding knife wielded by Kirby. He had used this weapon to stab attorney Mock exactly 12 times, inflicting devastating injuries. In total, the four officers fired approximately 20 rounds with 17 striking Kirby. Per standard protocol following a critical incident. All four involved officers were placed on administrative leave. Upon learning of her son's death, his mother, Karen Kirby, was completely devastated. She described her son as an incredibly loving, selfless young man and a rare, multi-talented individual. Records show Kirby was a senior at Michigan State University, majoring in zoology with a focus on herpatology and aquarium science. Prior to this incident, he had absolutely no criminal history. During his academic career, Kirby excelled in both sports and academics. He was a member of the university's football team, had been honored as scholar athlete of the year in Maryland, and graduated with a stellar cumulative GPA of 4.2. Furthermore, Kirby had already secured a job offer from the Austin Zoo in Texas. His future was incredibly bright. Family and friends firmly believe that at the time of the incident, Kirby must have suffered a sudden, severe mental health crisis. They argue that without any mental health intervention or a sustained effort to deploy less lethal weapons, police immediately resorted to lethal force and kept firing even after Kirby was completely incapacitated. Karen was looking forward to attending her son's graduation ceremony in May. Instead, she had to visit the morg to count exactly 17 bullet wounds on Kirby's body. To make matters worse, three of those shots were fired by a rookie officer with only three months on the job, allegedly to stop Kirby from committing suicide at that moment. To the family, it seemed entirely absurd. At a hearing on May 19th, Kirby's mother announced she is partnering with a local civil rights organization to retain legal counsel and sue the police department for excessive force and wrongful death. In the face of this lawsuit, the courts will look to the landmark 1989 Supreme Court precedent, Graham versus Connor. Under this standard, an officer's use of force must be judged from the perspective of an objectively reasonable officer on the scene at that split second rather than with the perfect 2020 hindsight of a relaxed post incident review. As long as a suspect actively retains possession of an edged weapon, whether attempting suicide or crawling forward, the law typically recognizes it as a continuing threat. However, also attending that same hearing where the family and legal counsel of the actual victim, attorney Mock, his family revealed that when the attack occurred, Mock was on the phone with his college-aged son, who tragically had to listen to his father being brutally assaulted in real time. Because Mock was unconscious and single, his 18-year-old daughter had to step up at the hospital to sign critical emergency medical consent forms on his behalf. Fortunately, after extensive emergency treatment, Mock survived and was discharged a week later to begin a long road to recovery. Their attorney pointed out that since that day, the vast majority of public discourse and media coverage has centered on the suspect and the legality of the police response. While the actual innocent victim, a father left with permanent lifealtering injuries, and his devastated family have been completely overshadowed and ignored by the public eye. The public should absolutely not let sympathy for a deceased perpetrator cloud the sheer brutality of this entirely unprovoked attack. Moving forward, the Michigan State Police will conduct an internal review regarding policy compliance for all officers who discharge their weapons. Because the suspect, Isaiah Kirby, is deceased, all criminal liability against him is legally terminated. Additionally, the toxicology report will serve as a crucial piece of evidence in this case. In civil court, the distinction between using force against an individual suffering purely from a mental health crisis versus someone under the influence of illegal substances can swing settlement payouts by millions of dollars. If the toxicology report proves the suspect was experiencing druginduced psychosis rather than a pure mental health condition, the officers are almost guaranteed to be protected by qualified immunity in civil court. I'll continue to track the developments of this case and keep you guys updated. That's going to wrap it up for today's video. If you enjoyed this breakdown, please hit those three buttons to support the channel. Like, comment, and subscribe. I'll see you all in the next one.