Joe Biden Suggests Police Aim at Legs of Assailants Instead of Hearts to Decrease Fatal Shootings

Joe Biden suggests that an officer can shoot an unarmed assailant in the leg, as opposed to the heart, in order to reduce number of fatal police shootings.

Joe Biden meets with clergy members and community activists at Bethel AME Church.
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Image via Getty/JIM WATSON

Joe Biden meets with clergy members and community activists at Bethel AME Church.

While speaking with community leaders at Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday, Joe Biden suggested that the police could decrease the number of fatal shootings at the hands of officers by having them aim for a person's leg, instead of their heart. 

.@JoeBiden says police should be trained to "shoot unarmed people in the leg instead of the heart".pic.twitter.com/yyRpWh1ZKh

— Nikola (@niktaylorde) June 1, 2020

"Instead of standing there and teaching a cop, when there’s an unarmed person coming at them with a knife or something, you shoot them in the leg instead of in the heart is a very different thing," Biden said. "There's a lot of different things that could change."

This is the latest comment from the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee that has raised eyebrows in what has become a rollercoaster run-up to the election. In late May, Biden struck a somber tone when addressing the nation after the United States surpassed 100,000 deaths as a result of COVID-19. 

There are moments in our history so grim, so heart-rending, that they're forever fixed in each of our hearts as shared grief. Today is one of those moments. 100,000 lives have now been lost to this virus.

To those hurting, I'm so sorry for your loss. The nation grieves with you. pic.twitter.com/SBBRKV4mPZ

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 27, 2020

Also in May, Biden was criticized over comments he made speaking to Charlamagne tha God while on The Breakfast Club. "If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain't black."

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