[arthurus]

The sheriff here would probably have pulled the lady fop off the street immediately. He has lectured local officers about the fact that they are trained to handle certain types of situations, in the specific case-threatening dogs, without the using their guns. We had two dogs shot here in the space of a month back when it had become almost a normal part of everyday police work in several cities. Sheriff Mckiethen's lectures to all the local police forces in the county ended that and no dogs have been shot since. Police are trained to handle even big dogs, and very very few of the encounters are actually threatening. Likewise they are trained to handle people with knives though that is more likely to require use of deadly force. With a fence between the two and no hostage, shooting is not required and seems more like whim.

[JayGalt]

Note the comments above. Avoiding force and using less harmful methods is great! There was the roommate & another bystander on the other side of the fence being threatened with officers unable to effectively deploy mace or taser through the fence. One lunge could have seriously injured a civilian and irrational people are often very fast & unpredictable.