The many steps before foreign cops shoot people:

[DetlefK]

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/wann-duerfen-polizisten-schiessen-interview-mit-einem-experten-a-1103726.html
article in german

An islamist recently ran amok in Germany, hacking with an axe at people in a train until a SWAT-team could shoot him.





The guidelines for german cops lay out a step-by-step process:

- Make sure that passersbys are out of danger.

- Get info what kind of weapon the attacker is using, how dangerous he is, what his lethal range is.

- Tell the attacker to put the weapon down.

- Threaten to use your gun. (Only allowed in situations where actually using a gun would be appropriate.)

- Using a gun is only allowed if the attacker has a weapon that can kill or maim (gun, axe, machete, knife... sticks are a borderline-case) and if he refuses to put them down when told so.

- Shoot for limbs. The goal is to neutralize the attacker, not to kill him. If possible, killing him has to be avoided.

- After each shot, check whether the attacker is still alive. Sometimes the attacker doesn't realize that he has been wounded and keeps going until he takes so many bullets that he dies then and there.

- Shoot-to-kill only happens if the life of the cop himself is in danger. In this case aim for the torso.

- Cops who had to kill somebody have the opportunity to get psychological treatment.