Is this actually dying in the line of duty?

[lobito]

A Police officer breaks his ankle or leg running after a suspect. A month later, he has a blood clot, and dies.

Now it's too bad he died at all, but that's not exactly line of duty to me. Only the cause of the original injury.

 

[Thrillhouse]

Okay, let's say instead of breaking his leg, he is shot by the suspect. He lingers in the hospital, but dies a month later due to complications stemming from the wound. Line of duty? I think so.

 

[Maxwe11]

Maybe its the intentions that count but why do we reward clumsiness instead of skillfullness?

 

[Lancecastor]

He's an America Hero.

All Willie McCool did was explode into bits while sitting in a chair...so a dead street cop oughta get more kudos, yes?

After all, doughnuts are inherently dangerous...

 

[70/30]

In that instance I vote an easy yes. Any number of things can cause one, but the mentioned linkage is rather close. I've had two close friends that have had an aneurysm in their brain. One was three years ago, but he was smoking a cig during a break from work. However, he was also stressed out from an upcoming child custody hearing. The other was my former teammate, very recently it occurred while running a workout. Amazingly they both survived. A former co-worker's wife also had one but she didn't make it, Space Mountain got the best of her. Pretty freaky, the thought has me doing pilates/yoga/stretching regularly instead of lifting heavily.

 

[The Heretic]

A Police officer breaks his ankle or leg running after a suspect. A month later, he has a blood clot, and dies.

Now it's too bad he died at all, but that's not exactly line of duty to me. Only the cause of the original injury.

Yes it is; the original cause was in the line of duty. Same with soldiers.

The same principle applies in crime; if someone shot me and a month later I die from a blood clot caused by that injury, that person is now guilty of murder. Same goes for "accidents".

However, there is a line that is crossed that if I recover from the gunshot wound, and then 5 years down the line I get sick and that previous injury contributes to my death, or makes the difference between whether I live or die, then while it is a contributing factor, it is not the determining cause and you can't charge the person with murder. But a month later, and a direct cause? Sure, that's in the line of duty.