TexasCHLforum.com

I have stayed out of this until now, but thought I would add my experiences.

I was a Reserve LEO 25+ years ago. I drew my weapon or deployed the riot gun several times, but usually a mode where we were 'on the ready' not pointed at someone (but that happened too.) I was secondarily involved in two on-duty shootings.

The first was after a pursuit of an individual who was thought to just have been a extremely high rate speeder. When the other officer got behind the individual, he started shooting back at the officer's vehicle with a Ruger Mk I .22. I was riding that night with another officer, and when we joined the pursuit the individual wrecked his car. He got out and fired at our car as we went by on the highway. Our vehicle pulled up at an angle and I drew down on the guy. He started running in a straight line toward a Quick-Stop. I didn't have a safe angle on the guy as the quick stop was behind him, but the original officer had a clear shot line and stopped the individual with one round from his .357. We found out later that he had hacked his Mom and Dad to death with an ax 6 hours earlier in Kentucky. That made the whole ordeal easier to deal with for me and the officer I was riding with, but the shooting officer still had some minor things to contend with.

The second incident was an armed robbery in progress. One of our Detectives pulled up to a Stop-n-Rob about 2AM. When he pulled in front, he saw an individual holding the clerk at gunpoint with a sawed off shotgun. The Detective's Dad owned the quick stop, so he had a key to the back door. He called for backup, and I responded from about 4 blocks away. I pulled up to the side of the building, and worked around the front with the Mossberg. The Detective had gone in the back door of the building and came through the door to the side of the counter from the storage room. I had just came around the corner and looked into the front window just in time to hear him yell at the perp to drop his weapon. The guy swung around on the detective and was shot as he started to swing. One shot dropped the individual. This man had a very long arrest record and criminal background, so that also made it easier to accept for both of us.

In short, every situation is going to be different. Circumstances, past history of the individual, etc. are all going to factor into it post shooting. An example that I feel I would have trouble with is if a young kid with no criminal history pulled a gun on me and I had to defend myself. While it may be a good shoot, I think I would still have trouble accepting that I had taken the life of a young misguided person. But you do what you have to at the time and address those issues when they come up.