[justadudeama]

Two things:

1.

> off chance the suicide vest was real

Would you argue that what the police officer did was wrong here? Is lethal force not justified with the credible threat of violence? I would argue that someone threatening you with a Airsoft gun with the tip taken out so it appears to be a real gun is enough to justify deadly force in self defense, you don't have to verify that gun is real. In hindsight, it is clear that you could have arrested him without shooting him, but that was not at all clear in the situation, and having that firearm could have saved dozens if the vest was real.

2. > In this instance

And, for arguments sake, if this was a different situation where the vest was real, what would you say?

[foldr]

Aren't these tangents? I didn't say that they shouldn't have shot him, just that it clearly wasn't necessary to shoot him in order to remove the threat. (It's obviously possible to apprehend someone armed only with a knife without shooting them.)