You understand nothing. This is one of the most idiotic statements I’ve ever read.
This is the worst situation for a police officer to face. The criminal MUST be dealt with, and the lives of hostages are of paramount importance. Add to this the stress of an unknown physical and emotional environment, yelling, threatening, an armed criminal refusing legal commands, a screaming hostage and more.
Now, let’s have everyone moving around a bit, searching for cover, yet trying to find a clear shot. It’s a difficult situation, yet one that must be handled immediately.
You ever do it? Of course not.
I’ve done it countless times, and since I wasn’t there to see the situation and the details, I would never presume to judge what another officer did until *all of the facts of the situation are known and investigated.
*
Police officers train with firearms to stop imminent threats. While Hollywood would have you believe that a single shot from a handgun round throws the target back through plate-glass windows, Subarus, walls, etc., while exploding the body into a bloody paste, only a child would believe it.
This is simply not possible. That’s not my opinion, it’s an incontrovertible, inarguable fact, provable by simple physics and demonstrated innumerable times.
Handguns - and I’m only assuming that’s what was used - can certainly kill people, and can do so with one shot if that shot is to the brain or brain stem.
Otherwise, you have a wounded person, still capable of returning fire, stabbing, running, fighting, and more. Multiple shots are often necessary to stop an armed or violent offender. Even after being shot 2 to say 20 times, and collapsing to the ground, the individual is often still alive. Not well, but alive.
Police shoot until the threat to life is over. It usually takes multiple rounds. In the time frame that this takes, everyone is moving, and I suspect - but do not know - that the hostage moved into the path of a bullet. It’s the last thing anyone wants, the cops train for it, but it is a huge unknown variable that simply cannot be measured, stopped, or even avoided.
Perhaps instead of making unsupported, cop-hating comments, you should consider the fact that this same officer would come to your trailer park anytime, day or night to protect you from from harm without fail, and without hesitation.
Consider that this officer has just accidentally taken the life of an innocent, beautiful child with her whole life ahead of her 1) while trying to save her, and 2) in front of her twin sister. You think he’s at the bar right now, drinking beer, doing shots, high-fiving the other cops because he did, after all, kill a bad guy?
I promise you he’s not. He’s grieving as much as her parents, under psychiatric evaluation, and possibly considering suicide. I say this not because I know the officer, but because I have seen other officers do the same thing. And kill themselves.
You have no idea what the fuck you are talking about.
**After **you’ve faced gunfire, and made hundreds of high-risk felony arrests in your law enforcement career, **then **you can speculate on the actions of others before an investigation is complete.
This is a tragic outcome of a situation set in motion by a career criminal with no regard for human life. It is not deserving of your misplaced indignation and obvious low regard for law enforcement.
