Medford's Interim Police Chief discusses officer training

Medford, Ore. — Officer-involved shootings often prompt questions regarding where an officer is trained to shoot a suspect. Interim Chief Randy Sparacino says they’re taught to stop the threat.

“Many times witnesses will ask, ‘why didn’t he just shoot him in the leg?’,or ‘why didn’t he shoot the knife out of his hand?’, any individual in a high-stress situation, your motor skills, your fine motor skills diminish, so officers are trained to shoot at the center of the target to stop the threat,” Sparacino says.

Sparacino declined to say where the suspect was shot in this incident.