Why not just shoot the gun or knife out of the aggressor’s hand? Why not just shoot to wound the subject?

Hollywood has created another myth, that of the Old West law man shooting a weapon out of an aggressor’s hand or shooting the aggressor in the arm or leg, and thereby stopping or disarming him. Like all of the Hollywood myths associated with police-citizen encounters, that one doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Officers are not trained to shoot to kill, but to shoot to stop the aggressor, so their training tells them to aim for the “center mass” – the middle of the largest exposed area on the aggressor – because aiming there increases the likelihood of hitting and stopping the aggressor.


That’s critical, because the officer is reacting to the stress of an encounter and both the officer and the aggressor may be moving. The likelihood of hitting a small, rapidly moving target, such as a foot or hand, is low. An aggressor can move his hand into a shooting position faster than an officer can react to pull the trigger. As a result, an officer can’t reliably hit a threatening suspect’s forearm or a weapon in a suspect’s hand, even if both the officer and the subject are stationary, which they rarely will be in such an encounter.

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1. Time is on the side of the police, right? They are trained for these types of encounters, aren’t they?
2. Why didn’t the police just talk the distressed aggressor into submission?
3. The subject only had a knife. Why didn’t the officer just disarm the subject, rather than shooting him?
4. Why not just shoot the gun or knife out of the aggressor’s hand? Why not just shoot to wound the subject?
5. Why didn’t the officer use non-lethal tools, such as bean bag or sponge rounds from a shotgun?
6. The suspect was shot in the back. He must have been retreating, right?
7. Why was the assailant shot so many times? Doesn’t that mean the officer overreacted?
8. Why won’t video from a police camera or a bystander’s camera tell the whole story?