What was the distance from the perp to officers?
The perp was able to level, aim , and fire a shotgun, yet miss the officers? And the officers returned fire, hitting perp AND hostage? Sounds lik the cops were too far away for a clean shot.
If it was a hostage situation, where was the marksman with a .308???
Something seems wrong.
I agree that the use of trained "snipers" should be greatly expanded and speeded up. Right now, few police departments have really first rate marksmen/women readily available, but have hordes of psychobabbling "negotiators". If half the money spent on psychobabble training was redirected to sniper rifle marksmanship training, taking a clean headshot would be a much easier option.
IMO the problem is due to the infiltration of bleeding-heart leftism into law enforcement and courts. I'm sure that policies and laws on the books require police to try a zillion "non-violent" measures to end a hostage situation, before giving the go-ahead to a sniper. Often it doesn't work, and even when it does, the taxpayers end up with the tab for keeping some animal caged/paroled/re-arrested, etc.
I'll never forget the case a few years ago, where a non-custodial father took his baby son hostage. A long stand-off ensued, while "negotiators" and the baby's mother tried to reason with him. In the end he just smashed the baby's head into the concrete in front of everyone, killing the baby. We need law enforcement to operate on policy of "we don't negotiate with terrorists".