"A man attempting to rob a check-cashing store in Irving, Texas, had his robbery thwarted when an employee triggered the alarm. Police quickly responded to the robbery in progress, and the handgun-armed robber decided to take a hostage.

This turned out to be the worst decision of his day, and the last decision of his life.

The officers simply could not let the armed robber leave the scene with his hostage.

One of the Irving Police officers on the scene retrieved his patrol rifle out of the back of his SUV and posted up alongside his vehicle ..... The officer braced against if for stability took aim at the hostage taker’s head ...., remembered his sight offset, exhaled, and “solved the problem.”

http://bearingarms.com/boom-headshot-texas-hostage-taker-smoked-irving/

Would this be acceptable in Australia?

Dear Is Mise,

I think that in the US they have different policies
to our police force. Maybe it is a question of when
lives are threatened it's "Shoot
first..." I believe our forces would shoot only as
a last resort. But I could be wrong. O Sung Wu would
know.

I've looked stuff up on the web and learned
that in the US the police force are allowed
to shoot first.

In this country the NSW police force have been given
the right to shoot first when dealing with
terrorists.
Makes sense.

I would hope our police don't solve crimes by 'shoot first, ask questions later' mode, because too many things can go wrong with this scenario.

The first thing that sprang to my mind was, isn't it lucky that policeman was such a good shot, because he could easily have shot dead the hostage if either the robber or the hostage suddenly moved at the last second.

The other point was that the robber may well have had a serious mental illness, and maybe a specially trained person, or the robber's relatives could have talked him down, rather than have the police shoot him dead, with no judge or jury.

Finally, I can only imagine how the hostage's mental health is going after firstly being a victim of a robbery and hostage situation, and then standing next to someone as they are shot in the head, with blood, skull and brain tissue splattered all over them...

I realize it is better than being dead, but surely it didn't need to end that way?
I have also noted that more police in the US have been called to account lately for shooting dead alleged criminals in such a manner. I think things are changing.

Hi Is Mise, you know my point of view on this. There are no winner in your story, only looser's, a robber and hostage taker lost his life, a copper who killed him has to live with that for the rest of his life, the hostage has been traumatised and will suffer for a longtime to come, as will others, the dead persons family, the officers family, bystanders etc. it not a Hollywood movie where the good guy simply shoots the bad guy and then they go home to watch telly or something. No its the real world where bad things happen, and they happen far too often.

Do I think there should be "carte blanche" for police to shoot first. No I don't think so.

Here's one courtesy of the Denver Police Dept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5xgnlx-Yo&feature=youtu.be&t=35

Plenty more on U Tube.