should the cop really legally shot the fugitive? [David Sweat]

[Northern_Piper]

@Loach

Use of force rule are similar but not exactly the same from state to state. I don’t know the exact wording in NY (and more importantly, how they have been interpreted) but here is what the NJ Attorney General’s guidelines are on the subject:

escape of a fleeing suspect

a. whom the officer has probable cause to believe has
committed an offense in which the suspect caused or attempted to cause death or serious bodily harm; and

b. who will pose an imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm should the escape succeed; and

c. when the use of deadly force presents no substantial risk of injury to innocent persons.

A desperate convicted murderer would fall within the rules. An escaped burglar would not.

That is speaking in general terms. I don’t know exactly how it went down in this case.

Out of curiousity, I asked a friend of mine who is a Crown prosecutor if the Canadian use of force rules were similar. His off-the-cuff answer was that he didn’t think the use of deadly force in these circumstances would be justified, because the guy was fleeing from the cop, rather than posing a direct threat to him, and there was no evidence that he was armed. I think the fact that the shooting officer id’d him solely from the description would have also counted against the use of deadly force, because of the possibility of a mis-identification in such short circumstances.