To look at the issue without posturing about morality - the issue is the best outcome.
What is the best outcome?
1. To stop the thief?
2. To make sure every good person doesn't get hurt?
Most banks suggest stopping the thief is NOT a goal. The goal is to make sure folks are safe. You can rant about philosophy if you want but risking other folks skin for your chest pounding is not really acceptable to me.
Thus, was lethal force called for to protect the lives of the people in the bank?
The guy was armed and could shoot even if you cooperate. These situations are tense and BGs can act in a manner which seems irrational. He could shoot back even when he was getting clean away.
On the other hand, if the BG was evaluated as fleeing, engaging him could cause him to stop fleeing and engage the fight more. Thus, more shots fired.
That's a hard call.
Then there is the baby - someone said that the baby was not in a typical range of fire. If you shoot a lot in stress situations, you do see shots go very wild.
At a recent high end class, I was in - I was standing behind the line watching the shooters with my partner. Another set of guys were shooting at the target.
The targets were 1,2 and 3. We had 3 and were waiting for our turn.
As the 2 group was shooting, I saw a hole appear on our 3 about 6 feet away. The shooting distance was about 5 yards.
I have also seen simmunitions hits on good guys several times in FOF with very skilled shooters. Not through mistaken identity but a round going wide because of stress.
While the baby wasn't hit, it is a risk to consider.
The current incident isn't a yes/no. The shooter took considerable risk. It worked out. Does that mean it was a reasonable decision? You really can't tell. You can't determine the odds with one shooting.
I said in the other thread - if the guy looked like he was going full blast out the door, I would have held him the sights and let him go.
Is there a risk to that - sure. However, my goal state would be to get the best possible outcome in terms of no injury as compared to stopping a robbery of money.