But... doesn't due process also get ignored whenever someone gets gunned down by police instead of arrested? The only justification given for that is "I was in fear for my life! He had [a weapon, or something that was mistaken for one, as if the second amendment doesn't exist]!" Sometimes adding "they committed a crime" as if that justifies it.
This is where the issue gets fuzzy. I am unfamiliar with the legal framework regarding killing suspects when they cannot be brought into custody.
I strongly doubt that there isn't an extant legal framework in place to support the actions of police who kill when there is a reasonable suspicion of them committing a crime. Otherwise, literally every single time the police bring down a mass-shooter, it's the police in the wrong for not bringing them into custody (assume for whatever reason they aren't coming quietly, like being wildly insane)
NINJA-EDIT: Fascinating. It seems the only relevant case I could find on the subject is (
Tennessee v. Garner), where the police argued in favor of being able to gun down a fleeing suspect. Interestingly, the Supreme Court decided on the basis of the
fourth amendment, which covers unlawful seizures
Justice White wrote for the majority, first agreeing with the Sixth Circuit's determination that apprehension by use of deadly force is a seizure, then framing the legal issue as whether the totality of the circumstances justified the seizure. In order to determine the constitutionality of a seizure, White reasoned, the court must weigh the nature of the intrusion of the suspect's Fourth Amendment rights against the government interests which justified the intrusion.
Shooting people counts as seizure of their most important property; it is thus legal, but only in the most stringent of circumstances. Legally, preventing people from committing serious violence such as rape, murder, and armed robbery falls under the ruling of "Justified Homicide", which apparently applies to police. If it is valid, it was justified. If not, it is police brutality/criminal behavior.