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posted by janrinok on Monday September 19 2016, @05:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the watch-your-6 dept.

http://mashable.com/2016/09/16/gun-robot-standoff

Robots have been used for everything from greeting bank customers to grabbing a slice of pizza — and now they seem to be venturing further into law enforcement.

A six-hour police standoff in a Southern California desert ended on Sept. 8 when a robot was used by police to take away the rifle of an attempted murder suspect.

The special weapons team from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department made the call after the suspect, 52-year-old Ray B. Bunge, refused to surrender. He has since been charged with attempted murder, criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon / firearm, robbery and felony vandalism.

During the standoff, Bunge was lying in a "dark open field" in the desert of Antelope Valley, California, when the robot stealthily, quietly snatched the gun sitting next to his feet, according to a Facebook post from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

Police had lost track of Bunge before using a helicopter and special weapons team to find him in a dirt area surrounded by shrubs and fence wiring. That's when they tried distracting Bunge and sending in the robot.

"He looked up and realized his gun was gone and he was exposed."

"While his attention was focused on the vehicles in front of him, the team deployed a robot from behind the suspect's position," the Facebook post explains.

The robot picked up the gun without Bunge noticing before pulling away the fence wiring that had been covering him. At that moment, Bunge finally gave up.

Well, that's a big improvement over sending in a robot with a suicide vest like they did in Dallas.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 19 2016, @06:15AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday September 19 2016, @06:15AM (#403632) Journal

    If he wasn't a bad guy, he would have kept his gun and shot the hostile robot.

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  • (Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Monday September 19 2016, @06:19AM

    by BsAtHome (889) on Monday September 19 2016, @06:19AM (#403634)

    The good guys get shot first, questions asked later. The robots will take care of that with a "sorry 'bout that" from the operator(s) and bosses.

    (tong-in-cheek)