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> though 14 seems excessive

Not defending or condemning the police's action (honestly don't know anything about it), but the number of gunshots is pretty much irrelevant. 14 rounds is two police officers firing most of the rounds in a magazine - this is what they're trained to do. Unlike movies, it's near-impossible to consistently disable somebody with a gunshot in a non-lethal way. This means that when cops shoot, they shoot to kill: centre of mass shots, often nearly emptying the magazine. It's not like it's a video game, where you can tell if you hit, so the safest thing to do is to keep shooting until you're 110% sure the target is dead. A police officer who only fires one round in an engagement like that wouldn't be acting in a safe manner, for himself or the people around him.

[hammerdr]

Thanks for the insight. Do you know anything about "downward" shots. That is, bullets that go from the head towards the toe in line with the body. There were several in this case (and a couple in the case of Mike Brown).

Also, why do medical examiners often conflict when looking at the evidence? Is it open that much to interpretation? Are the primary medical examiners motivated in the wrong ways somehow? Or are the alternative opinions coming from quacks?

I realize you may not know all these answers, so I apologize for lobbing them all at you. It is hard to get genuinely balanced knowledge in these things and I want to be as informed as possible.