LEO question

Because they cover their bases. Suppose you say later, that you weren't the one who shot the person, you come up with some elaborate story, etc. The police want to have evidence relating to what actually happened at the time. They only get one chance to do it right, and its their job to make sure they do.

Also as far as the police are concerned, there is no downside to taking anything they can as evidence. if they don't use it that's fine, but its no inconvenience to them. Whether or not it inconveniences you is none of their concern.

If they took everyone's statement at face value, and let their first impressions and perceived versions decide who they do and don't investigate, would they really be running a good investigation? "Well you see chief, she seemed really nice, so I decided not to check everything to see if she was telling the truth." Bad idea.

"Ma'am, I'm glad you're ok, and I have your statement. What I need to do is verify all of the facts and eliminate any chance that it happened any other way than how you said it. When that it done and you are cleared, we will gladly return your property."

Because it is evidence....As is the dead body, with the bullet held within, which I assume that too was taken away...

They take the gun, and other evidence, and conduct interviews of witnesses in your hypothetical scenario for the same reasons they do it when cops shoot someone.

A crime was committed, and must be investigated. That investigation will determine whether the shooting was justified or not. If the shooting was in fact justified you want a thorough investigation that documents all that. Not only does it help you make you prove self defense with regard to possible criminal charges, but the evidence from that criminal investigation can be helpful to you when defending a civil suit from the person shot or their family.

It is nothing unique to non-law enforcement involved shootings. The firearm can, and should, be taken as part of the proper course of a shooting investigation. Firearms involved in law enforcement shootings are taken from the officers just as they are from regular citizens. The difference is after each shooting, I have had a replacement firearm given to me almost immediately to be sent home with. Nevermind I had a small arsenal at home anyway.

As has been stated, shooting investigations are very thorough. Even when an involved party is telling the exact truth as they see it, events unfold differently to everyone and even truthful statements can be shown to be in error. The mind does not work the same way under the stress of a shooting and what a shooter swears to be the case is often not the case. On point, people often think they fired a few rounds and in fact fired several. They think they were standing on one side of a barrier when in fact they were standing on the other. The variables are endless.

The handgun is taken, number of rounds reported as being fired compared with the shells on the ground (if applicable), the number or rounds left in the firearm, etc. Bullets, or fragments thereof, are extracted from the subjects body. The firearm is test fired and the bullet markings compared, etc. This is especially important if more than one person fired where it is important to deem accountability and responsibility for each shot fired.

Truthfully, you should not be offended if a firearm is taken after a shooting incident. You should be offended if it is not because that investigation wouldn't be very thorough and may play against you.

Having been a sergeant in the NYPD before retiring in 1993, I can relate that police officers involved in shootings, on or off duty, will have their handguns, that were used in the shootings, removed for ballistics testing. Reasons are obvious, if more than one police officer was involved, the testing would determine whose bullets struck the intended individual, whose bullets were fatal, whose bullets may have struck an innocent bystander, cars or private property. The NYPD must be prepared for any eventuality in criminal or civil court. Police officers involved in shootings aren't even returned to "patrol" but are temporarily assigned to "station house duties" until there is a disposition.

The police have to investigate every homicide (the killing of a human being by another, no connotation attached). Merely performing the investigation is not an accusation.

Let me sum up an incident: The husband works the graveyard shift. The wife and child are home alone. An intruder breaks in, with a knife, to "get some". The wife pulls the .357 out of the nightstand and shoots the man dead in the hallway and then calls 911. The wife then tells the 911 operator that she shot the intruder.

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These things have been known to be staged.