Originally Posted by Bill O'Rights

Speaking as a former police officer, I wish to address some of your commentary.

First; No proper criminal would put him/herself into a stupid situation like that? I'm sorry, but this sounds as if you are taking the criminals side here. What the hell is a "proper" criminal versus an improper criminal?

Second; Yes, he most certainly did deserve to get shot. Derserve to die? Maybe...maybe not. That's another debate. But as someone who has stood on the other side of a badge, I'll tell you this. You take a hostage, threaten that hostage with a gun, then you point your gun at a cop? Yes, you deserve to get shot. Period. No room for discussion there...at all. I'm extremely liberal on an awful lot of issues. Not this one. This bleeding heart crap about "we don't really know what his intentions were"? Bullcrap! He made his intentions crystal clear when he pointed his weapon at the cop. At that precise moment...the instant that he decided to point his gun at the cop, all bets are off. It's finished. He goes down.

Third; "for simply taking a hostage you don't deserve to die." I'm here to tell you now, that there is not a single cell of me that doubts, for one milli-second, that the hostage felt otherwise.

Finally; "he was only shot because he waved his gun at the police officer." What do think he was doing? Waving good morning to the officer? If I were the responding officer to that situation I'd have done the same. No question. And for any cop that hesitates that fraction of a second, to ascertain the perpetrator's real intention...well, we have special ceremonies to honor these brave souls. Complete with parades, speeches and salutes. We called those ceremonies funerals.