This story of a Canadian police officer attacked in a mall by a 20 year old man with a machete features a picture (above) of the machete, the Cold Steel (TM) Kopis machete, not a scimitar, but made in imitation of an ancient Greek or Persian sword:
The Calgary police officer who was attacked by a machete-wielding man at Marlborough Mall remains in hospital recovering from severe injuries.
The officer, who has been on the force for about two years, responded to reports of a man swinging a machete at the Marlborough LRT station around 2 p.m. Saturday.
When the officer approached him, the man ran into the mall.
The officer chased him into Sears, where the man pulled out a 48.3-centimetre machete.
Calgary police say the officer tried to subdue the man with a Taser, but it had no observable impact.
The officer drew his gun and the man attacked, slashing the officer and causing severe injuries, police said.
The officer shot the man.
EMS took both men to Foothills Hospital. The officer is in stable condition and the man in serious, life-threatening condition, having to undergo emergency surgery.
By Dave Dormer, CBC News Posted: Sep 18, 2016 3:15 PM MT Last Updated: Sep 18, 2016 3:51 PM MT
While we have a picture of the machete good enough to read the brand name, we don’t have a picture of the attacker. Over at JihadWatch, they can’t help being suspicious that a raceless, nameless, machete wielder may follow the Religion of Peace:
Nothing has been released about either of these attackers; thus they could turn out to be “right-wing extremists.” However, in light of the Islamic jihad attack at a Minnesota mall yesterday, and the jihadi threat against malls in the West, the possibility that these, too, were jihad attacks cannot be dismissed out of hand.
“Suspect shot, police officer injured during physical struggle in Marlborough Mall,” by Ryan White, CTV News, September 18, 2010 [More]
If I had to guess, I'd say the attacker was most likely to be a white Calgarian, a frequent flyer in the Canadian justice system. The next most likely would be a Canadian Indian. However, the point is that they don’t say, so people are suspicious.
In the meantime, I'd like to say the manufacturers of the excellent Cold Steel Kopis (buy it at Amazon) are not to blame for this. If you watch the cutting demonstration video below (not for the faint of heart) you'll see that it’s a very dangerous instrument, and the officer was wrong even to try non-lethal methods:
