‘Victim’ used correctly

In response to “Not a victim” (Letters April 1), I can understand why Officer Moses is upset about the term “victim” being used to label a man who appeared to be intent on hurting someone and who did indeed fire shots at officers and was killed in the following gun fight.

It seems to him that “victim” should not be used to label people who get hurt or die while committing a crime, but “loser” is perfectly acceptable. When is the loser not the victim?

Now a simple search in the dictionary would reveal that the definition of “victim” is: somebody or something harmed, killed, tricked or exploited, etc.

Maybe they were just using the term correctly. Officer Moses says he is upset about how the paper misleads readers with misinformation and carefully selected words. I didn’t see any carefully selected words, just the truth, and the truth is, no matter which way you spin it, the man who was shot and killed was a victim, even if it’s of his own stupidity. The family and officers involved weren’t physically harmed; actually the Spokane police did their job for once and stopped that family from becoming victims.

Zach Agman

Spokane