Boston police commissioner says he also would’ve used a robot bomb on Dallas shooting suspect
After the Dallas Police Department made the controversial decision to kill a suspected active shooter by sending a robot holding a bomb to his location, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said he’d likely have done the same thing in the high-pressure situation.
“That was a very tense, extraordinary situation,” Evans told Boston Public Radio Tuesday. “And given the same situation, I believe I would do the same thing for the safety of my officers.”
After the alleged shooter, Micah Johnson, fatally shot five Dallas officers at a peaceful protest where a crowd had gathered to decry recent police shootings, authorities responded by sending a robot equipped with an explosive to kill him, ending an hours-long standoff during which gunfire was exchanged.
The tactic drew many to question how police use force, and the role such technologies have in modern policing.
But Evans said such instances are extreme, and that it’s unlikely something similar would unfold in Boston.
“Do I condone it? Well it depends,” he said. “I think those were extraordinary circumstances and they used the bomb to neutralize someone who wanted to continue to cause a lot of harm.”
The Boston Police Department has similar robots that can be used if a suspect were to barricade him or herself, Evans said. Usually, they’re used when officers have to retrieve an explosive device and attempt to dismantle it.
“We don’t intend to use [ours] like Dallas,” he said. “Faced with the threat they had, I don’t know what other choice they had.”
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