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Shoot to Kill - Faulty Police Strategy? SPOILER

posted 8 years ago by JackBluegrass
2 replies | jump to latest

At the finale, Basehart had been trapped underground in a wash tunnel, a policeman fired teargas(?) into the criminal's hiding place to force him to reveal himself. The police wore gasmasks. As Roy/Ray crawled unseeing out from his hiding place, why would police have shot to kill at that point?

Wouldn't a police sharpshooter have just shot to wound the Basehart character? Police had so many questions about the criminal's long success in outwitting them. Killing him would put an end to police ability to question him and get all the answers they needed to tie up the many loose strings of the case.

Any ideas?

E pluribus unum

[–] grstmc 7 years ago

Standard procedure, probably even more so in the 1940s, is that a cop killer either surrenders or the police shoot to kill. That's what I always heard anyway.

[–] liscarkat (16530) a year ago

He was continuing to fire at them. They had no choice but to put an end to the threat as quickly and effectively as possible.