Police Kill Man Who Shot Police Robot

[Peggy Reist]

Thoughts on this? I know there is more to this than the headline, but should shooting a robot justify deadly force?

Link Removed

 

[farsidefan1]

Not the first time officers have gone gun ho prematurely. I thought after WACO and a few other experiences LE would have learned patience. They have all the cards, why push it? Sure it is inconvenient but really, open a can like that for shooting a robot? Now if it was Data or someone else from the "Next Generation"...

 

[BlueDawnInc]

I think it shows the length LE will go to in order to get their guy. If you use the assumption that they were concerned about public safety when the suspect started firing into the street, then they were probably justified to use deadly force against him. The fact that they are the ones that put the robot there in the first place muddies the water a bit. Bottom line, if you shoot at or towards LE, you'll probably end up dead. I'm not a lawyer though and living in KY, I'm curious to see how this plays out.

 

[wolf_fire]

I've been appalled at a lot of LE encounters that have reared their ugly heads in these forums. I've been vocal against LE abuse. I however, also try to give both sides of an encounter a fair shake.

Let's look at what the article says the facts are:
- Police arrive with an arrest warrant
- Man to be arrested has rifle
- Police take neighbors out of their house for their protection
- Police urge man to surrender for five and a half hours.
- Police use a remote control robot to gain entry into the home.
- Man uses his rifle (the man escalated this situation) on the robot
- Police return fire to stop the man. Did all those rounds, that were supposedly errant, come from the police? The rounds in the truck outside the house seem to be line of sight from the house. I would suspect those were Aukerman's and not the police. Did the police shoot too many rounds? Did they stop after the threat was down?

So are the police to blame for shots being fired. No. Are they to blame for the excessive amount of errant rounds. Yes, if they did use excessive rounds.

Here's another link from the original news source: Neighbors speak out about Shelbyville man killed in standoff | Kentucky News - WLKY Home

 

[ezkl2230]

Interesting. As a civilian I am not generally permitted to use deadly force to protect property (Michigan permits the use of deadly force to protect property in the event of a felony attack on property), even though, as Bastiat wrote, property is an extension of personality. I wonder if that is the rationale here - shooting at the robot constitutes a felonious property crime.

 

[JCliff]

I agree with wolf_fire's analysis on this. If police come to serve a routine arrest warrant and meet with armed resistance, what do you expect them to do? It would seem based on the information contained in the news stories presented here that they tried an awful lot for quite awhile before it turned into a gunfight. Don't know with certainty yet, but it also looks like the man shot at more than just the robot, based on neighbors accounts. Like most people I would have preferred that this had ended differently; I don't like to see what looks like a disturbed man choosing death by cop, but it sure doesn't look like the police are to blame here.

 

[BluesStringer]

Compared to how quick the raid went before Jose Guerena was murdered by a SWAT team, I'd have to say this one went perfectly acceptable. As cynical as I am about cops, even I wouldn't expect them to be able to distinguish between the subject's bullets being aimed at the robot or the cops beyond it. If they're taking fire, they have every right and legal reason to return fire.

While I never celebrate anyone's violent death, like saying "they saved the taxpayers a bundle, good for them," I have no problem with this particular instance of death by cop(s). Guerena was awakened from a sound sleep and did have a rifle in his hands, but the safety was never rotated to "Fire" before he had dozens of rounds pumped into him. That's why I called that case a "murder" and have no problem with the end result of this case. This guy knew the cops were there and that shouldering or firing his rifle in the cops' direction was going to have fire returned towards him. Guerena likely thought he was getting ready to be the victim of a hot home invasion by neighborhood thugs, which as it turned out, he was.

Blues

 

[r1derbike]

Sounds like a legit use of deadly force, from the comments.

 

[sgtbill]

As a retired Det. Sergeant and a SWAT team sniper for about 22 years I would have taken the shot as soon as the suspect started to fire in the direction of the Police . I would not have shot just because he shot up R-2 D-2.
Bill

 

[chilipeppernorm]

Looks like the guy brought this on himself, if you send rounds downrange in the direction of cops trying to arrest you, you can expect a lot of lead on the return. I'd say killing the robot was a short lived satisfaction. There was a recent TV news story here (Sacramento CA) regarding law enforcement considering use of drones for photo/video surveillance and some possible unspecified weapons capacity. That is very disturbing. Could one shoot a drone if it's unidentified? If a police drone then probably a SWAT response. Off topic I realize, and a rhetorical question at that.