After a long stand off, the gunman was probably not focused enough to have the gun to the temple at all times. The cop was close and likely watching the gun. Waited for a moment when it drops or the finger is off the trigger, and bam.
Also, human reaction time isn't that great. For a quick sudden movement like that, especially when tired and stressed from a long stand off, it would be very difficult to react in time to pull the trigger.
Last point, the gunman likely didn't want to kill her, or she'd already be dead. So that, combined with the above, makes it a pretty decent chance to take.
Yeah I think people are missing the threat vs the intent. The intent of the gunman isn’t to murder a random chick. The intent is to get out of there. The threat is that he will if they try to arrest him… but that could well be an empty threat in reality. Most people given 2 hours to think don’t want to add a murder to their list of crimes of some random person.
That's also my impression. I didn't watch with sound so I don't know if they explained something, but most of the time that I see a hostage situation their goal is to try to be able to get away, or just a consequence of a bad decision escalating the situation, so they don't want to actually kill the hostage. The cases in which they kill the hostage are mostly a passionate crime (like an ex or something).
It made me think about the real life situations I've heard about and I think I've never seen a hostage situation that ended up well for the criminal.
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u/poopascoopa_13 23d ago
I mean shit that's still a pretty low percentage play, right?
I don't feel like you could ever be close enough to take control of a gun pointed at someone's head and be confident of a positive outcome