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Legal advocate reviews actions of TPD officers following Sunday's fatal shooting of armed suspect

With all four officers involved still going through internal review, the executive director of a legal advocacy group shared her observations regarding TPD's videos.

TOLEDO, Ohio — The Toledo Police Department is currently reviewing some of its officers' actions after they shot and killed an armed murder suspect on Sunday.

Some of their decisions recorded on body and dash cams raised questions from an outside observer.

From officers shooting out of their own windshields during a high-speed chase, to more than 70 rounds fired at one man, even Toledo Police Chief Mike Troendle said this was far from a typical shooting for his officers.

RELATED: 'It's rather unusual for us to shoot from inside our vehicles,' Toledo police chief describes confrontation between officers, armed suspect Sunday

WTOL 11 decided to get an outside take on the incident from Lauren Bonds, the executive director of the National Police Accountability Project.

The NPAP is a subsect of the National Lawyers Guild and was created to protect the human and civil rights of individuals in their encounters with law enforcement.

"We really focus on eliminating police violence through civil rights litigation," Bonds said.

After watching clips from Sunday's incident, moments like officers opening fire through their windshields left Bonds a bit surprised.

"I think the firing the shots from the inside of the vehicle was pretty unusual," Bonds said.

At that moment, the man the officers were chasing, 33-year-old murder suspect Albert Alderman, had just waved a gun at them.

Bonds said that police certainly have the right to open fire on suspects in dangerous situations like this one. But she said in this particular instance, there was more to consider.

"You are in a residential area, if you're shooting through glass in your own vehicle, there's a really high chance that a bullet will ricochet and hit a bystander or another officer," Bonds said.

Bonds called that moment a red flag, but what about the number of shots fired?

According to TPD, Alderman was hit 35 times and 73 shots were fired in total. Bonds said it's a large number of shots fired, but there are scenarios where it makes sense.

"There could be a situation where the number of shots was reasonable if the gun was still pointed," Bonds said.

This is the exact reason Troendle provided Thursday to the media.

"When he falls, he falls with the gun still in his hand, pointed at officers," Troendle said during Thursday's press conference.

So in total, with the four officers involved still under internal review, what does Bonds think should happen?

"I think it wouldn't necessarily be a situation where discipline is recommended, but maybe additional training," Bonds said. "So I would say an ideal scenario would be a situation where it's acknowledged that the situation could have been done better."

WTOL 11 reached out to a TPD spokesperson about what Bonds said. The spokesperson said the chief was unavailable.

Right now, it is unclear how long the police department's internal review will take. Once it is done, the officers will still have to face the firearm review board.

All four Toledo officers involved in the shooting are back on duty after being put on paid administrative leave for firing their weapons, which is standard procedure.

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