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I wish that police work was like the movies... where a lone hostage negotiator can make a guy stand in front of the window, and then the sharpshooter, with his hat backwards and a toothpick in his mouth, downs the guy with the single shot. Then the plain clothes female detective would run in and wrap the baby in her shirt, and hand it over to the weeping mother....
In a perfect world, the bad guy dies, the good guys get rescued, and the heros go drink a beer. Unfortunately, we live in a world where someone who is high on drugs, intoxicated, exchanging fire with officers, decides to use his own baby daughter as a shield.
What options do the police have? Tasers? Tasers are only effective at close distance. When dealing with an armed subject, close distance is the last place that you want to be. Snipers? Snipers need a clear shot... even glass can deflect the path of a round. A subject barricaded in an apartment makes a poor sniper target. Hostage negotiators? I am a hostage negotiator, and we do the best that we can in situations like this. When a subject is high, and drunk, and in the frame of mind that would lead him to believe that using his daughter as a shield is a good idea, talking him out of it is a next to impossible task.
The officers were doing their job, putting their lives in the line of fire in order to attempt to rescue a neighbor. Is anyone suggesting that they should have continued to take active fire without trying to neutralize the threat? Should they have continued to allow the suspect to shoot at them without putting him down? How many police would have had to been shot before people would have said "Ok, now they should fire back?"
My prayers are with the officers, and the mother of the child.
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