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Originally Posted by feelgood
My beef is this: It looks like the police went too far.
They shot him 5 or so times, they could've fired off a warning shot and still be protected by hiding behind the crusier's door but instead, they figured that it'll be safer to pump him full of bullets because it looks like he was getting something in his pocket. Yeah, it could've been a gun but aren't they're suppose to be trained for this kinda of situation where they don't overreact and kill people?
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It couldn't have been much more obivous that he was going for another gun. That turned it into a "shoot or be shot" situation. Cruiser doors cannot stop bullets. the only part of a car that can protect you is the engine block, and that's not big enough to conceal a body.
Five shots from multiple officers is not "pumping him full of bullets." After one shot the suspect was still moving, and if the first shot fails to produce reflexive neurocirculatory shock, the only options are to wait and see if a second does it, shoot again in center of mass and then in the head, or keep shooting at center of mass until there is no question about whether an armed criminal will be getting back up and shooitng back.
If you hop over to the Weaponry forum and check out a few self-defense threads (there's one on hydrostatic shock still on the front page that gets into technical details about how a bullet stops a target,) you'll find that the officers did nothing more than what was necessary to be sure that a threat was neutralized.
[QUOTE=Rlyss]How come a warning shot isn't fired into the ground? Shooting into the air would obviously be dangerous but why not shoot into the concrete? Is it to make sure they don't blow of a toe, or is it more because of what Phage said?[QUOTE]
There is no such thing as a warning shot from police. The time it takes to find a safe target (when there most likely is not one,) aim the gun, an dpull the trigger gives an armed criminal at least a full second in which to take aim and shoot the cop. Shots should only be aimed at center of mass, not in the air, not at the ground.
The ground is not a magical bullet absorber. While some shots may fragment on impact (even this creates shrapnel,) many are fully capable of ricocheting and killing an innocent bystander or law enforcement officer who is trying to rectify the situation.