1. I do not believe that shooting the driver is taught in police training as an approved method to stop a car from running over or dragging the officer. It is a way to stop a car from getting away. But if the only purpose is avoid injury to the officer himself, I doubt that any respectable police training program teaches this. Instead, I think that police officers are taught to avoid putting themselves in a position where they can be run over or dragged.
2. If I am reading this correctly, in this case the officer’s bullets did not hit the driver but instead killed a passenger who had earlier hit him and whom he was pursuing,
3. There were children in the car.
It is certainly one more criminal off the streets but I personally view the officer’s conduct as highly suspect. I think that allowing police officers to shoot and kill fleeing suspects in a case like this on the basis of the purported fear of being run over is dangerous for society and a bad thing.
He needs more range time.
I’m sure there’s a being dragged to your death simulator that teaches cops to only hit the driver.
Officers shoot, and frequently kill fleeing suspects in large numbers every day.
It is presently exactly what they are trained to do.
It drug his shoes off? Could he not let go? And how dangerous is it to shoot in a crowded parking lot while being dragged by a car. What would be said if some kid in a shopping cart had been hit?
I watched a cop draw down on a guy in a parking lot of a grocery store. He had his gun drawn and was screaming “On the fu..ing ground!” The guy he was pointing the gun at was looking around with a “You talking to me?” look. Ended up the cop “thought” he recognized the guy as a criminal.