Similar case here in Des Moines. There's video that's in the link on the tweet but long story short. Guy leads cops on a high speed chase, gets pitted when he pulls into a cul-de-sac, guy jumps out of the car with a handgun and runs into someone's back yard. The cops shoot him in the back. The handgun turns out to be a BB gun. You have to think this dude is going into someone's house with that gun. If it's my yard, I want the dude shot before he comes into my house.
https://twitter.com/KCCINews/status/1301983640159739911
Agreed
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That guy wasn't going in anyone's house or threatening anyone's life. Running from a cop while holding a gun shouldn't be an executable offense.
So they should have given him the chance? None of us, including that dude running with the BB gun, had no idea what he was going to do. I think your view of use of force actually has the potential to make things worse by muddying the waters. Police absolutely should not have do think whether someone fleeing with a gun, especially a suspect who has already shown you he will do whatever it takes to get away from you. I don't think we need to lower the standard for proper use of deadly force because of bad cops. If someone is fleeing with a gun they need to be stopped.
In these two cases, one guy running toward the cops with a gun, the other running into someone else's back yard, these seem like very clear or be killed situations. I refuse to see these in the same light as suffocating someone with your knee for 8 and a half minutes, or shooting an unarmed man in the back, or choking a 140'pound kid to death, or shooting a 12 year old in a park before the police car was even stopped. I don't want to strip police of the right to actually protect themselves or the people they've sworn to protect.