Not necessarily a bad thing, RCMP had a new spin on "fire fighting".
RCMP officers ‘intentionally’ set home ablaze during tense standoff, court documents reveal
A house fire that erupted during an armed standoff in B.C.’s Lower Mainland three years ago was “intentionally” ignited by RCMP officers on scene, court documents have revealed.
www.ctvnews.ca
So, he had already shot at police and was continuing to do so. Sounds like it was assessed he was equipped for an ongoing standoff. Orders had already been given that he could be shot and killed.
The lawyer going on about bullets in a fire is obviously ignorant of what bullets actually do in a fire.
The talk about the fear of fire spreading… Well, maybe. But from Google Maps and Street View it looks like they had some buffer around the property to work with:
Street View · Google Maps
There was clearly an urgent imperative to stop a threat of death or grievous bodily harm to both police and the broader public. All other reasonable options seem to have been tried and exhausted.
While shocking and unprecedented, looks like it worked and everyone including the suspect made it out safe. He was at great risk of being taken out by a police sniper; would that have been preferable?
Parliament has created laws that constrain police use of force considerably and appropriately,
but that, once thresholds are met necessitating it, are largely mute as the the exact ‘what and how’.
It’s easy to Monday morning quarterback tactics from the outside looking in and with the benefit of hindsight, but in an absolutely shit situation everyone came out alive, and this seems to have been a last resort before waiting him to appear at a window and killing him, or alternatively trying to forcibly breach and send a team in. His odds of coming out of those alive would have been much lower, and the risk to police and the public much greater.