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First, a brief story: A 44 year old male diagnosed for many years as a paranoid schizophrenic was shot and killed by police during an attempt by a SWAT team to remove him from the bedroom where he had barricaded himself for two days. He was extremely paranoid of police, had delusions that police were plotting to kill him, and had previous encounters with local police in which he assaulted and injured at least one of them. He was considered a danger to himself and others by psychiatrists. A psychiatrist had failed in negotiations over several hours to get him to come out voluntarily before police were finally called in. An ambulance was staged on the street during the standoff in order to transport him once he was in custody. The plan was for the SWAT team to spray tear gas into the room, thereby blinding and disabling him, and then storm the room and physically overpower him and take him into custody. It was known in advance that he had axes and knives in the room and was likely to use them on anyone who entered. That is the reason for using the SWAT team. Unfortunately, during the assault by the SWAT team he swung an axe at one officer and another officer fired in defense. He was shot once in the abdomen and died later at the hospital. First, let me say that I do *not* wish to debate the rightness or wrongness of the use of lethal force in such cases. That's a very long, very boring argument that no one ever finishes and there is no shortage of better cases to debate than this one. What puzzles me is this: Extremely dangerous animals are captured routinely with little risk to the animal or capturers via the use of tranquilizer darts fired from air rifles. Why is this technique not employed in cases like this? (ie, someone who is quite dangerous but who is not a criminal.) Are there medical, legal, or law enforcement reasons for not using such an approach? It seems simple and obvious to me, but perhaps I'm missing something. Your thoughts appreciated.
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