A car can accelerate very quickly. If a fleeing suspect has been told to stop, switch off the engine, and get out of the car, and he doesn't, then starts backing towards the cops - they can't wait to see if he's intending to hit the gas and run over them, because if he did, they'd be dead.
I had a friend who had both her legs and her pelvis fractured by a VERY slow speed collision in a high school parking lot. (Somebody backed out of a parking space without looking.) The sound of the broken bones grinding together as she tried to stand up is something I will NEVER forget.
Thank you - that's an important point to remember. Plus if the suspect follows the commands and shuts off the engine, and gets his hands up, nothing happens. No bullets fired. Nobody gets hurt.
I had a friend who had both her legs and her pelvis fractured by a VERY slow speed collision in a high school parking lot. (Somebody backed out of a parking space without looking.) The sound of the broken bones grinding together as she tried to stand up is something I will NEVER forget.
Yep, been there - done that. I was one of guys that had to get her on the backboard, stabilize her, run a line if necessary, and get to the ER in a hurry. Many people don't realize how much force is involved in a "slow" car. But now, I wait in the ER for the patient to come to me - less messy. :-)
There's still a bad moment when the one brought in is a cop. It's a shared moment of one of the team going down.