the police overreacted though.

Everybody just forget about "shooting him in the leg" or shooting him in the arm or picking any particular part of the body. That's not how it works.

Yes, in the movies the hero shoots the gun out of somebody's hand to disarm him without hurting him. Guess what? That doesn't happen in real life. A handgun is hard enough to use, a moving target makes it trickier still, and in a tense and potentially violent situation in real life you just shoot the guy--aim for the torso and hope you hit him somewhere. Go to a gun club and do some pistol shooting before you go spouting off about where exactly a cop is supposed to shoot a moving target. It just does not happen like it does in the movies.

I know of one real instance of a cop shooting a gun out of somebody's hand. It was videotaped, and this was the situation: The guy had a pistol and was sitting in a chair in the middle of a road threatening to kill himself. The cops didn't want to kill him because he was mostly a danger to himself, but he was also a potential danger to others. A police sniper with many years experience (not just any cop) was hidden with a scoped rifle (not a pistol) some distance away. The guy was sitting in a chair and would ocassionally get up and sit down again. The sniper studied the guy's movements for about ten minutes to try to anticipate how he would move, then at last, very carefully, took his shot and took the gun right out of his hand. When they took him into custody, the guy said to the sniper, "That was a hell of a shot."

That is how it happens in real life. If it's a furious chase, a running target who is probably dangerous, and scared cops with pistols trying to protect the civilian population, they just shoot and pray to God they hit the S.O.B. because if they don't, he might really be in his way to blow up a train.

whoa whoa...u guys got the wrong end of the stick...He ran through security when 5 ARMED police officers told him to stop...over and over again. WTF are u supposed to do if he's heading for a train?

jesus christ...

The question is, were the policemen recognisable as policemen? I heard his appartment was under surveillance by officers under cover. If the unfortunate man couldn't know that all those big aggressive men running at him were policemen it's understandable he ran.

I think this is another example of the inevitable consequences the war on terror has caused on our law enforcement. We must be carefull not to trade too much freedom for safety.

This is the same instance as that idiot italian reporter's car trying to speed through the marine blockade in Iraq where some people ended up getting shot. If the police try to stop you and check you, you 1) you don't try to run from them, that immediately assumes guilt 2) you don't make threatening gestures towards them, that assumes you have the means to cause harm and they are authorized to protect themselves and civilians around them against you.

This guy was seen as a potential suicide bomber the moment he tried to run from police. He was running towards a train. I also understand he was wearing a bulky coat in the middle of July.

Quick decision time, you have a potential suicide bomber running towards a train full of people. He may have a detonator he can easily trigger. What do you do? Let him get to the train and detonate it, or kill him so he is the only death and unable to kill anyone else?

You know the phrase "better safe than sorry" killing this guy was the safe option and a lot better than the sorry option. The only way to guarrantee that he was dead was a head shot anything else and he might have lived long enough to trigger any explosive. And he was the one at fault because if he hadn't run he would not have been killed.

As for any cries about racial profiling or racism in the fact that this guy fits the description of all but one of the previous terrorists, big freakin' deal. Guess what he fits the description. He's potentially a threat. If all the other bombers had been blond haired blue eyed men wearing lederhosen, and the police were about to check a blond haired blue eyed guy wearing lederhosen and he took off running wouldn't you want them to shoot him before he kills anyone? If you were a blond haired blue eyed guy wearing lederhosen would you really get upset that they checked you out and proved you weren't a threat?

They shot him 8 times comon he would have been dead at like 1 and in the head too. And I would agree what he did was stuiped he should have stoped, maybe he was running for a train. But 8 times?!

Yeah, right after the world has gone into high alert due to terror once again, LET'S RUN AT THE TRAIN, AWAY FROM THE POLICE, BECAUSE SURELY, THAT'S WHAT ANY INNOCENT WOULD DO.

He had an expired visa anyways.

well what if it was a detonated bomb eh? the only reason he COULD have been running towards the train was because he wanted to blow himself up...so if they had just shot him so he wouldn't be able to move, then he could still detonate the explosives...if there were any