I’m not sure I blame the officer. He put seven bullets in the criminal, but the eighth bullet went astray.
The criminal was pointing his gun at the officer rather than at the girl, so that would seem to be a good time to shoot him.
Maybe eight shots was too many, but he wanted to be sure he got the perp before he or the girl got shot.
I’d call it just plain bad luck.
Or maybe you can blame the judges or parole officers for letting this guy out when he should have been kept behind bars for his prior crimes.
“He put seven bullets in the criminal, but the eighth bullet went astray.”
Article doesn’t say what the sequence was. Could have been first shot killed the girl, next seven into the perp.
Cold comfort that the thug is dead. We await the race hustlers to come screaming.
What I'm a little worried about is that the officer's first shot inadvertently killed the girl, then he had a clear shot for his seven remaining shots.
Definitely all for pinning the blame on lenient judges and the parole board, and of course Smith himself, most of all. Not a cop myself, but it seems like a cop has little choice but to fire if some POS points a gun at him. Can't just stand there and let himself be murdered. NBC is such a bunch of sleazeballs, I'm still not convinced the cop killed her... Just have to cross our fingers and wait a final determination.
It’s illegal, even for cops, to have more than 7 bullets in a gun in NY state.
Hmm. I might, depending on the details. Judging by the the outcome, it certainly seems to be a case of the officer taking an unnecessary risk.
This isn't the movies. But even if it was, the idea of police shooting at a suspect who is using a hostage as a human shield is questionable at best. Especially with a handgun. A sniper shot might be a different situation, but even in that circumstance, I happen to personally remember when a hostage was killed in an Orlando standoff due to a poice sniper's fatal error.
The point is, it's obviously preferable that the perp escape capture (temporarily, hopefully) than for a hostage to be fatally shot by police.
I'm sure the officer feels horrible.
Just tragic...