And shooting a loose big cat with a tranquilizer gun (which takes time to take effect, I will remind you) would be a very big unnecessary risk. Four cops, even with handguns, I'm sure could take down a cat with lethal force.
And female forest rangers use tranquilizer guns to take down Grizzly Bears for health checks and fitting radio collars, imagine that? As for taking down a tiger with a pistol I know a lot of hunters who would take a pass on that as too dangerous. I'll make the same point as you do regarding the tranquilizer guns, unless you are very lucky the animal is going to live for a time and make your life very interesting. By lucky I mean a heart, brain, or spinal cord shot. I seen white tail deer shot through the "boiler room" with a 30-06 run for a couple of miles. I seen others drop where they stood. That's not a chance you want to take by being under gunned.
Regards,
GtG
Apparently the dead kid even grabbed the tiger’s tail according to an earlier post!
If true, he has to be Darwin Award winner of the year.