Infuriating to see someone die for no good reason what so ever. I assume the officer who fired the shot(s) acted out of fear for the lives of the hostages who were supposedly in the building. I agree with the sentiment that emergency response does not allow for investigation into the legitimacy of the claims being made. It's up to the officers on the scene to judge whether the threat is real or not, and in this case, they sadly failed. I won't presume to know why they failed, as we don't have the full details, nor can we possibly hope to understand what it's like to have seconds to react to stop what we perceive as a hostage situation.
As for the swatter. If it were up to me, he'd be executed. Not only would it send a clear message that Swatting will not be tolerated, it would also be a reasonable consequence for having instigated the death of an innocent person. Or so I think...
If I am a police officer responding to a hostage situation, can I really afford to doubt the validity of the claims? If I see the suspect coming out the door, and then going back inside, presumably to make good on his threats towards the hostages, what choice do I have but to act? had the situation been legit, and the suspect been allowed to walk back inside and killed his family, we would be raising hell at their failure to act. When just seconds matter, I suspect the last thing going through his mind was that this might be a hoax by some idiot giving out a fake address and situation. Basically, you can never know if you were right or wrong until after you've acted. Swatting, however, is very obviously wrong, as evident to anyone well before they've done it.
This Feared for my life crap has to stop.
Yes policing is dangerous and the police have a right to self defense but that being said, the officers know that the job is dangerous if they're that scared for their lives maybe they should look into another line of work.
Otherwise any cop can shot someone and then quote I feared for my life to try to justify it.
You don't see firefighters running away from a small building fire because they fear for their lives.
Maybe the US cops should become like the cops in london.
Gunless with special trained officers that only carry guns or maybe use non lethal ammo this way they learn to appreciate the importance of a gun and not over rely on it.
I'd love to see you dare patrol a gang heavy neighborhood without any real means of protection. The British police works, to a degree, because the Brits decided to punish the many for the actions of a few back when they removed access to legal ownership of guns a few decades back. A country that allows legal ownership of guns also needs a police with weapons of their own, or else they cannot operate within reasonable safety levels. Add in the problem of illegal gun ownership in bad neighborhoods, and the need for the police to carry guns of their own increases.
Now, whether you agree with the right to own firearms in the US or not is a different debate. Personally, I like that the US does not punish the many for the actions of the few (relatively speaking) by making guns illegal entirely. However, so long as the general public has access to firearms, the police will need weapons of their own to be able to meet any potential situation.
I would also add that you can have a police force that is armed without being liberal in their use of their weapons. Denmark, or indeed Scandinavia as a whole, is an example of that. Personally, I would not have much faith in an unarmed officer solving a bad situation, and armed response being several minutes away won't do anyone any good.
