ASSOCIATED PRESS
A robotics expert says Dallas police appear to be the first law enforcement agency to use a robot to kill.
Peter W. Singer, of the New America Foundation, says the killing of a suspect in Thursday night’s fatal shooting of five police officers is the first instance of which he’s aware of a robot being used lethally by police.*
Dallas Police Chief David Brown told reporters that after hours of failed negotiations and in order to not put any officers in harm’s way, his department used a robot to deliver a bomb that killed the suspect. Brown said they saw no other option.
Singer said in an email Friday that when he was researching his 2009 book “Wired for War” a U.S. soldier told him troops in Iraq sometimes used MARCbot surveillance robots against insurgents.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press
*Editor’s Note July 2016: Although Singer may not have been aware of it, the Colorado Springs Police Department used a robot with explosives to breach a home and arrest a suspect wanted on felony charges. The man arrested was found underneath a floor that caved in after the explosion. He was wounded and is currently suing the police chief and members of the department for use of excessive force.