Approached a shootout at slums with my 870, noticed two random sweatervests minging about, they both got detained but instead of staying where they were meant to stay they ran head first into the apartment complex while it wasn't secure.
Moments later when the door was opened and a shooter was contesting the point, they both exited just outside the door and stood there.
Me and another officer was directly hindered in doing what we were supposed to do, I tapped one of the sweatervests in their chest, and the other one got sent into the 6th dimension by the shooter.
It's safe to say that I won't give a fuck who you are, or think you are if you're putting our lives at risk.
I've done this multiple times in fact, once when a suspect was hindering my movement when a flanker or two was approaching the same location as I. I shot the suspect in the chest after exhausting all other options to free myself and proceeded to assist in taking down the flankers.
Every person sticking their head out to help neutralize a threat counts, things can go wrong very quickly without the manpower.
I've said this before, Fredy received an AR on him (guy who made the ar didn't know who it was at the time) a long time ago for shooting a suspect hindering his movement.
It was justified as the suspect was both breaking 3.4 and confirmed to have been involved with a property resisting to cooperate + they were known to be armed. It escalated into a shootout shortly before this though.
Let's just put it this way, don't got any other options? Shoot to incapacitate, not to kill. They're unarmed and probably deserve it, but it isn't necessary.
I've had a suspect position himself in front of me as I was covering an apartment window, I would have shot my own suspect if it came to it, but it didn't, and he got a fat sentence for obstruction, failure to cooperate and all that fun stuff.
Then moments later wrote a fat report on him as well.
Assess the situation, what can you do? Anyone able to help you? Is this person a threat to me, or someone else? Am I out of options?
This is a thought process you should have when making a decision on whether or not to shoot a seemingly unarmed, uncuffed and/or handcuffed suspect.
Every single person that's either unarmed, not contributing to the shootout in any form of way, and in a way that isn't putting them at risk should immediately punished.
And this punishment shouldn't be at all soft, this is something you need to learn, and quickly. The way people stand around in a shootout isn't something you see in real life very often.
The only time you'll see spectators is if they think they're at a safe distance, and even then if a bullet lands next to them they'll begin running.
(Away from the shootout preferably)
This is behavior that should be in perp, and it's the kind of behavior I have when I approach a shootout as a civilian or a paramedic. If I notice the shootout being lost by police, I run like hell, get in my car if available and yeet out of there.
