An Urbandale man involved in a standoff with Polk County deputies Monday died Tuesday morning. After negotiation attempts failed, deputies shot 21-year-old Justin Schleuning with a bean bag gun. The rounds were meant to stun him, but wound up killing him
“I don’t like the term less lethal,” says Gil Hansen, a firearms training and defensive tactics instructor at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. He says so-called bean bag guns can safely diffuse a situation. “They can subdue a person without deadly force and because they aren’t intended to cause death or bodily injury,” he says. But the danger is still there. Filled with birdshot and fired from a 12 gauge shotgun, the weapon still packs a punch.