agree with gypsy they also have none lethal ammo as well
spoken like someone with zero firearms training/experience.
when you pull a piece you dont aiming at arms legs or heads. you im center mass and continue squeezing until your target hits the ground.
as for the "bloodthirsty" cop just wanting to shoot another person, your seeing it from a skewed perspective.
think of this cop who has probably never had to discharge his firearm before.
he just had to take a life. the emotions involved and adrenalin dump are enough to engage the reptile brain.
he believes the situation to be over (except for screaming and understandably emotional friends,family and neighbors) there is more tension than an overhead powerline.
someone yells man with a gun.
you see a man in street clothes moving with purpose toward the scene with an assault rifle.
is he the lunatics brother?
is he a gang member?
does he want revenge?
the storm is not over.
mistakes were made.
the biggest one?
strapping on a bunch of knives and terrorizing your neighborhood,then committing suicide by cop.
1. Knifeman seen locking himself in his room in his parents house..
2. Police evacuate parents or anyone else from house..
3. House surrounded and entrances covered...body armour/knife/flack jackets worn by Police...
4. Police attempt at negotiating with knifeman and interview parents as to the mental state of knifeman and whether or not there are any other weapons, firearms in house.
5. If knifeman does not surrender, tear-gas/smoke could be used thru window into house to flush him out.....
6. If/when knifeman is flushed out and continues to be agressive a tazer/pepper spray or minimal force (bullet in leg e.t.c.) could be used if knifeman has not become gunman....
*This would probably be the scenario in a country such as the U.K. since ordinary Police are not armed with firearms....but are required to wear knife proof jackets....
Don't Police in your neck of the woods have to go thru some sort of Martial Arts training that involves diss-arming someone weilding a knife?.......that and a good spurt of pepper spray/mace should have contained the situation....
.... the 21 foot rule basically says that an individual can cover said distance in approximately the same amount of time it would take someone with a firearm to unholster the weapon, accurately aim and fire. Somehow I doubt the officers weapons were holstered.
I dont claim to have any actual experience with this but I dont anyone could cover such a distance before I could pull the trigger.
A homicidal maniac wandering the neighborhood with multiple weapons and you expect police to give him a lollipop? The kid started it. The result is his fault. For his death and the officers.