I am largely ignorant of the issues faced in world of law enforcement. And perhaps this is a broader philosophical question with no clear answers.
A guy, alone at night, in a city, near the location of a reported armed robbery is confronted by cops, takes off running. He drops what appears to be a gun, picks it up and keeps running, should he be shot? I understand that he may take a hostage or start shooting or whatever. He may turn the gun on the cops. I remember old cop and robber movies when I was a kid where the cop would yell “stop or I’ll shoot”. We had the above situation happen here in Utah a while back. Cops were found to have done no wrong. People are understandably upset. A few years ago, a young man playing with a sword was stopped by cops, he took off running with the sword and they shot and killed him. I presume the same justifications apply. I wonder how often someone with a weapon does harm after evading the cops. I wonder how other countries confront the same problem. If a human gets scared and runs due to uncontrolled fear, should they be shot? I was only truly scared once in my life. Was in a bank robbery. I understand that your rational thinking goes out the window a bit when you are really scared.
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