After sniper fire struck 12 police officers at a rally in downtown Dallas, killing five, police cornered a single suspect in a parking garage. After a prolonged exchange of gunfire and a five-hour-long standoff, police made what experts say was an unprecedented decision: to send in a police robot, jury-rigged with a bomb.
"We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Dallas Police Chief David Brown told a news conference Friday. "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb."
Dallas Police Chief David Brown pauses at a prayer vigil following the deaths of five police officers last night during a Black Lives Matter march.
At a Friday evening press conference, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings revealed that police used a common plastic explosive known as C4.
"We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Dallas Police Chief David Brown told a news conference Friday. "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb."
Dallas Police Chief David Brown pauses at a prayer vigil following the deaths of five police officers last night during a Black Lives Matter march.
At a Friday evening press conference, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings revealed that police used a common plastic explosive known as C4.
"Given how many police [departments] have robots and given how versatile they are and the various uses to which they've been put, including in hostage situations, I think we'll find that there have been other examples of this," says Ryan Calo, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law who studies robotics and cyberlaw. "As far as I know, this is a first time that they've used a robot to intentionally kill someone."
Interesting new precedent to bomb target. How long before cop-killers copycat?
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