Yes, it’s possible that blowing up Michael Xavier Johnson with a robot-delivered bomb saved lives, but at the same time, this is basically one more step down the road of relying on extrajudicial killing to maintain law and order instead of allowing the criminal justice system to work as intended. In addition to robotic bombers, it’s not difficult to imagine LE relying on heavily armed drones to take out suspects. And if it’s a human rights violation for the POTUS to take out suspected terrorists with drones without due process, surely it’s also a violation of civil rights if local and federal LE do the same thing.

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Using a Bomb Robot to Kill a Suspect Is an Unprecedented Shift in Policing • 2016 Jul 8 • Jason Koebler and Brian Anderson • Motherboard

That the suspect is heavily armed does not necessarily mean deadly force is necessary to subdue the suspect, considering that both the Charleston church shooter and the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooter were taken alive.¹