Can the police fire at the feet of a person?

Quite often we see the police fire on a person who is a thief, who is running away and gets unintentionally or accidentally killed by the person personnel.

There is a fundamental principle that the action of the police cannot be more than the amount of punishment the person will get for the crime he has committed. For example, the police cannot produce grievous injury to a simple thief by firing on his leg. Another example is, if a person has abused somebody and is running away, the other person or the police cannot fire on the leg to stop him. So the actions of the police of firing unnecessarily on the leg of the person is not justifiable unless they are firing on a person who has murdered somebody or who is a threat to other persons in the society.