Hmmm.
Several unanswered questions spring to mind.
If he presented an immediate danger (eg if he was thought to have a 'device' under his unseasonal coat) then why shoot him five times in the torso, rather than in the head? And according to eyewitnesses he was pushed to the ground and shot, so they were near enough to avoid risking putting rounds into the detonators, etc. And one or two in the cranium would seem so much less..... 'American' .... than a fusillade of five in the torso, and would seem so much less like over-reaction to the public at large.
And if he didn't present an immediate danger, then wouldn't the int value of taking him alive have been worth something? Wouldn't it even be adequate compensation for missing the glee that I'm sure we all feel for having 'got one of the bastards?'
And if he wasn't an immediate threat but wasn't worth taking alive, wouldn't it have been sensible to capture him and then shoot him 'trying to escape', or at least out of public view? (And though I'm a liberal-ish journo, that's not an otion I could bring myself to condemn).
Is there anything we could do to 'gag' witnesses? Why do I know that he was pushed to the floor in a way that suggests he could have been restrained (or shot more sensibly)? Why do I know that they put five rounds into him? The simple fact that the police shot a suspect who they feared was about to detonate a bomb would be so much better from a
PR point of view.
And had he been taken alive, how could we have interrogated him rigorously and effectively enough while complying with existing human rights legislation?
I'm not a fan of Gitmo/Abu Ghraib/exporting folk to Jordan, and wouldn't condone using those methods, but against a terrorist suspect are our laws and practises sufficient?
Being realistic, this could easily be presented as 'police overreaction', and could sow further discord in the Moslem community. Nothing (repeat NOTHING) justifies what these scum (terrorists of all flavours) do, but we do need to be mindful that they draw some support from decent human beings who have real (or real seeming) grievances. Presenting them with more causes for concern seems silly.