This is an incident that occurred not far from me. I'd be interested in the take of some of the folks who have been active on the threads of the Houston cops' abuse of power. Of course, this is a very different kind of situation, but it might generate some interesting discussion. I thought maybe y'all could ping some of the others.
I understand the reasons for the cops wanting to wait for the robbery to be committed, because it means the criminal will go back to prison for a long time. Much longer than if the cops had arrested him before the robbery for a weapons violation.
On the other hand, this was an extremely dangerous crime. It's one thing to wait for an extortion attempt, or a theft of a warehouse. This is something else entirely.
If the perp had planned a murder, would they have waited for that? This is awfully close to that, and I agree with the others who say that the clerk was used as expendable bait. Thank God nobody was killed.