We can drop a lion but kill a man?

My husband and I were talking last night before sleep. "What did I think about the man they shot in New Orleans?" I simply replied, "we can tranquilize a lion that escapes from a zoo, but we shoot a man holding a knife." He asked me if I thought of this on my own or had someone else stated this fact. Too simple. I see death often. I have seen people die that shouldn't and I have seen people make it that were almost gone. So why do we have the ability to drop a animal that could easily devour a human being and yet with 30 police surrounding a man holding a knife we shoot to kill rather than shoot to survive. I wonder if anyone even attempted to shoot his knee or his arm? What about his foot? Maybe he was a homeless man. Maybe he was a family man who had lost his job and completely lost his mind. Maybe he was a mentally challenged man who was overwhelmed. Maybe. He was someone's son. He was a created indiviual. He had been made for a purpose. God doesn't make trash. Maybe the police really did do everything they could. Maybe they did not. Maybe the man is better off. Maybe he left a family behind to suffer. Maybe his death did not effect others in the manner that it did me. I have watched the face of death. I have fought and worked with every ounce of my nursing ability to stop the process when it wasn't the natural thing to occur. Changed. Forever I am always changed by each death. I am shocked to think a four legged creature gains more attempts to save than a person with a name, a history, a life, a family, a mistake and a three inch knife. We should all be changed.