To the Editor:
Re “‘Bomb Robot’ Takes Down Dallas Gunman, but Raises Enforcement Questions” (news article, July 9):
I find the use of the military robot to kill the Dallas gunman both clever and extremely disturbing. As reported, the gunman was completely boxed in and could not move more than a few feet. So I wonder, if the police could use a robot to blow him up, couldn’t they have used it to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart instead? Or used the robot to let off a gas that would have knocked him out, so that they could then arrest him?
A government’s use of lethal force against a citizen must always be heavily scrutinized and must always be a last resort—no matter how deplorable a citizen he may have been.
KATHARINE JONES
Woodstock, N.H.
