There does not appear to have been a direct threat made to the FPD officers at any time, and all of the original statements by FPD and DNM state that Richards apparently may have *tried* to use the elderly man as hostage, but did not actually do so - at no time was he used as a shield or threatened.  It's likely there are, and were here, a number of options besides lethal force and tasers.  It's only that our police are trained to feel threatened and to react in specific, and quite limited response patterns.  Humans have a high level of verbal skills for a reason - chanting the same limited phrases, offering a single behavioral option, may communicate quite will what the LEOs desire, but don't necessarily communicate much of a positive nature to the other side of the equation.