OK. this is not a good example of how to do the job...

I've often said don't rush to judgement when an officer uses force. Often people see only part of the story, don't understand that a man with a knife can be a serious threat to a man with a pistol, etc.

That being said if this an accurate report, I have to say the man should have been terminated.

A Tennessee police officer lost his job after he shot a squirrel inside a store last Thursday.

It happened in Mountain City -- northeast of Johnson City.

According to police documents, now-former Officer Jody Putnam was inside a Dollar General Store when employees noticed the squirrel. Putnam apparently shot his firearm at the squirrel inside the store. When that didn't work, he used another weapon; pepper spray.

"There was a lot of people that come out and just like me they came out and they were coughing and a hacking," Carl Duffield told WJHL-TV. "It was comical, but I'm sure they didn't feel that way - the customers that came out."

In Mountain City, when an officer fires their weapon, they have to report it to a supervisor and make a written statement.

Putnam refused to file the report. That is a violation of department policy and for that reason, the town's Board of Mayor and Alderman fired him.

The standard for the use of deadly force is do you have legitimate fear for the life or serious bodily injury of yourself or a third person. I can't see how this officer had legit fear of that. And any use of a firearm has to be documented. So what can I say man, you screwed up, again assuming this is the full story. I've learned to not take all in a news report at face value.