To protect them, Officer Jacques Doby killed the unarmed driver by firing repeatedly into the truck. Doby shot 38 bullets, reloading twice, according to a police official. What we're seeing in these cases are officers inappropriately putting themselves in harm's way because we haven't trained them well. On Friday, Chief Charles H. Ramsey announced a new policy on the use of force, placing even further restrictions on officers attempting to stop cars. Car Cases Conflict With Standard Policy Police in Washington and throughout the country are restricted in shooting at cars for both common-sense and legal reasons.
Bullets tend to ricochet off car bodies.
And if an officer hits a criminal driving a car, the officer may only succeed in turning the vehicle into a 2,000-pound unguided missile. In real life your odds of 'killing' a car are about as good as becoming the next chief of police. The officer said he fired because the car was about to run him over. The contention here is if a vehicle is coming at you, you have the option to get out of the way. The number of car shootings by District police far exceeds the numbers for other high-crime cities like New York City and Miami, The Post found.