AZ: Cop stops fleeing felon without shooting him

[uthornsfan]

I think it was better that his back was to the vehicle. I also think it was better that the cop was going as fast as he was.

1 if the guy would have been facing the vehicle when it hit him (lets say he turned around at the last moment) his legs would most likely have snapped instead of buckling in an anatomically correct way.

2 if he didnt hit him at the same speed he could have just knocked him over and then run him over.

Didnt Mythbusters do an episode on driving into a Moose. I think it has some bearing on this.

[gthaustex]

Deadly force is deadly force, whether it be use of a firearm or a vehicle used in this manner. The felon had a long arm known to be loaded. This approach was probably the best for officer safety to avoid a shootout. It is also difficult to say without knowing the area, but who is to say that they needed to quickly stop him from going to an area nearby where there was a school, mall, etc. where bystanders might become involved if shooting started??

[Javier730]

The officer should say his foot slipped off of the brake and hit the accelerator.

The best snark I saw (but lost where it was): "The officer tried to draw his taser but instead grabbed his car keys."

I got a good laugh out of this one.

[C-dub]

Judging how much force is needed with a vehicle to stop someone like that has got to be extremely difficult. I'm a little squishy on this method only because it seemed a tad too fast, but definitely on the LE side. Maybe because it's not a common method of stopping a person on foot. Maybe it's because it was from behind. Shooting people in the back is also not good. With the BG approaching other innocent people this was probably the safest and best way to stop him.

[n5wd]

Deadly force is deadly force, whether it be use of a firearm or a vehicle used in this manner. The felon had a long arm known to be loaded. This approach was probably the best for officer safety to avoid a shootout. It is also difficult to say without knowing the area, but who is to say that they needed to quickly stop him from going to an area nearby where there was a school, mall, etc. where bystanders might become involved if shooting started??

One of the TV reports pointed out that just around the next corner was a shopping center (on one side of the street) and residential area (on the other side of the street). So, there was some urgency implicit in the situation.

[rbwhatever1]

Awesome video! Best one I've seen in a while. The dirt bag got what he needed.

Wish he would have backed up real fast to see if he really hit him, maybe just make sure he didn't run off...

[anygunanywhere]

Awesome video! Best one I've seen in a while. The dirt bag got what he needed.

Wish he would have backed up real fast to see if he really hit him, maybe just make sure he didn't run off...

I see what you did there.

[Jumping Frog]

Deadly force is deadly force, whether it be use of a firearm or a vehicle used in this manner.

Agreed. It's an open and shut deadly force case. If deadly force was justified it doesn't matter one iota how that force is applied or how it looks on TV. A deadly force policy can be extremely short compared to the regular use of force policy.

The facts as I understand them are this:
1. He was armed, having stolen the weapon in question
2. He had just committed several other felonies, including robbery and arson
3. He had fired one or more shots while being pursued by law enforcement
4. He refused to drop the weapon or get on the ground
5. He was fleeing apprehension by continuing to walk away, again despite demands that he stop
6. He was headed towards an area where lots of people were known to be so the possibility of a hostage taking given his known, immediately prior behavior had to be considered

I see no problem with the use of force nor with the technique.

The city will probably be paying though - some guy is going to be mad about his wall. There was no justification to knock the wall over. Send a city crew over and they can rebuild the wall easily enough.

[A-R]

Somewhere in this police department or city government is bow-tied bean counter flailing his arms in disgust that this financially irresponsible cop wasted a $30,000 patrol car to stop a perp when a $1.50 tactical rifle round would've done the same job for a lot less money.

[mojo84]

Somewhere in this police department or city government is bow-tied bean counter flailing his arms in disgust that this financially irresponsible cop wasted a $30,000 patrol car to stop a perp when a $1.50 tactical rifle round would've done the same job for a lot less money.

Not too mention that very very nice cinderblock wall that had to of had tremendous sentimental value to the owner which will experience immeasurable emotional distress over it being destroyed in a such a manner.

[mr1337]

I think it was another possibility that the suspect was threatening to take his own life as well. Confronting the suspect normally may not have worked to keep him alive.

The officer may have saved the suspect from taking his own life.

[C-dub]

I think it was another possibility that the suspect was threatening to take his own life as well. Confronting the suspect normally may not have worked to keep him alive.

The officer may have saved the suspect from taking his own life.

The guy did threaten to kill himself. He faced the officer whose dashcam recorded all this and had the rifle pointed up under his chin and the officer said, you don't want to do this, before the guy turned back around and kept walking. Who knows? He could have been walking somewhere with the intent of harming someone else before killing himself. More details to come.

[ScooterSissy]

Had to watch it several times. Awesome! Of course the media will spin this in the dirt bags favor. They'll say his back was turned so he wasn't a threat for example. Don't they know you have to wait until he kills or injures someone first? (sarcasm)

He's shooting into the air. What goes up, will come down (with nearly equal velocity).
He's a threat.
I see nothing wrong with what was done, unless one wants to criticize the operator for hitting the wall and damaging the car. The "damage" to the shooter was basically self-inflicted.

[VMI77]

I don't see where there was much of an alternative. The only relatively safe way would be to take him out with a sniper behind cover, but there was not much of an opportunity to deploy a sniper. Even as fast as he was going there was still a risk that the BG would hear the car and turn around and start shooting. It would be interesting to know how the driver who took him out ranked in grade and experience to the other officers on the scene.

[mojo84]

He definitely made a decision and took decisive action and it ended well.