Then, sorry, but I blame the cop. If a suspect is holding a hostage, it is way too risky to shoot at him with a handgun. That shot should only be taken by a marksman with a scoped rifle.
The only exception would be if the suspect has just shot someone, and is now preparing to shoot again. Then all bets are off.
I feel for the cop. He was trying to do the right thing in a horrible situation. But he made the wrong call.
From the article: "Smith was released on parole in February after serving time for first-degree robbery and has a lengthy criminal record that includes assault"
The cop was wrong. But let's not forget that it's a judge who is ultimately responsible for this tragedy.
Smith pointed his gun at the cop in close quarters. The cop has to fire or die.
Are we allowed to do Root Cause Analysis anymore?
/johnny
Don't shoot much do you? I could take out a perp holding a hostage with one shot up to 50 yards easily and not touch the hostage. 100 yards I would still be 98 percent certain of hitting only the perp. This is with a handgun. I am a very good shot but there are better than I am.
The fault here lies in improper handgun marksmanship training on most(if not all)police forces. They don't require them to shoot often enough and they don't train them correctly.