Not saying I agree with it all, but some salient points are raised here.
http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=441
Again, the officer shot not because he was afraid of getting "smoked", but because he was trying to prevent the innocents from being shot.
And as much as I like Mr. Williamson, comparing being a soldier to being a cop is comparing apples with mushrooms. As a soldier, I knew who the enemy was and that he was trying to kill me ALL THE TIME. I also had a pretty good idea of where he was, and what he was capable of and what he was going to do to try to kill me. As a cop, I almost never knew where the bad was, nor what he was capable of doing. I've had to go from trying to help someone injured to actively fighting them to prevent them from hurting/killing me, all in the blink of an eye. Go to a domestic and try to calm people down. And then for fun, arrest one or both. (HINT: When you separate them to find out what's going on, don't allow either into the kitchen and make sure there are no weapons present. P.S. Lots of common household crap can be turned into an improvised weapon before you know it.)
And I've been both. And every time I had to respond to an emergency, it was never about me, it was always about how I can make things right and help people. "Going Home" never crossed my mind.
Same with comparing them to Firefighters. There is ZERO requirement that save every building. There is ZERO requirement that they rush into every burning building. If someone dies in a fire, the firefighters do NOT get blamed for saving everyone. More often then not, the Firefighters will do what they can to prevent the spread of the fire, not save the structure. The attitude is "Insurance will pay for it." These days if a Firefighter dies in line of duty, it's because it's an accident, or he did something he should not have done or failed to do.
Cops have to go to the scene. They can't go, "Once he kills everyone, if he doesn't burn himself to death, then we'll arrest him." Firefighters for the most part know "There's a fire in that building". Cops often don't know that even much. The fire isn't (usually) going to jump out and start shooting a people (cops and/or innocents). And again, the cops had bad information. If firefighters have bad information, they load back up in the truck and go back to the station as there is no fire.
And yes, there are some differences between this and what happened in Peoria.
1) Time of day. Peoria was broad daylight, Wichita was at night.
2) Didntdonuthin in Peoria had not taken a life. In Wichita, 911 was told he had killed someone. Once that boundary is crossed, the use of lethal force is allowed.
3) Peoria didn't pour gasoline all over the house. In Wichita, 911 was told that he was ready to burn everyone. And since the murder boundary had been crossed, (and the gasoline had aerosolized), you simply can't risk trying to wait them out, as even he doesn't Flick his Bic, the longer the they wait the great the chance of accidental ignition.
And I agree with cordex
I'm of mixed feelings on SWAT teams. They're certainly overused and too many departments have them when they don't need them. That said, when the report is for a barricaded murderer with multiple hostages, it's pretty hard to argue that they aren't a reasonable tool.
Yes, they are overused, but this is PRECISELY the situation that SWAT teams were created for.
Again, it wasn't a good shoot, but the cop did nothing wrong based upon the information provided.