Robot-Delivered Lethal Explosive in Dallas Police Standoff Was a First, Experts Say

Peter Singer was quoted in PBS Newshour about the first robot used to kill a human being:

Unable to subdue the suspect without compromising their safety, police decided to end the standoff by attaching explosives to a bomb robot and detonating them near the suspect.

Peter Singer, a strategist at the New America Foundation who has written several books on technology and war, said the decision was unprecedented.

“This is a first in terms of use of a robot lethally by the police,” Singer told NewsHour. He explained how the military had used robots armed with bombs at checkpoints, but the closest police had gotten to doing the same was in 2011, when law enforcement in Tennessee used a robot to shoot tear gas canisters at a suspect’s mobile home. The house subsequently caught fire, burning to the ground. The suspect escaped unharmed.