Abstract
On July 7 Dallas officials used a robot to kill the suspected shooter of five police officers. The homicide of the suspect was precipitated by a series of events. After a prolonged gun battle and hours of negotiations with police, the suspect, then holed up in a confined area of a college building, continued to threaten to kill more and claimed to have planted bombs nearby. Investigating officers decided the time had come to incapacitate him. The police secured a one-pound chunk of C4 plastic explosive material to the extendable arm of a militarized robot. Then, they sent the robot into the confined area where the suspect was concealing himself. The police officer operating the robot remotely blew up the attached explosive, and as intended, the suspect was immediately killed. This is believed to be the first time in domestic policing that a robot carried out an act of lethal force.