word difference - Shoot, Shoot At

I have a question about the difference between the verb "shoot" and "shoot at":

1. Police shot the suspect.


2. Police shot at the suspect.

Are they just the same?

Answer

The are not the same. Adding "at" implies intent, while the other just states fact (with minimal implications). This is how I see it as someone with an almost Texan dialect.

The police shot the suspect.

This is pretty straightforward. The police fired bullets that actually struck the suspect. All that matters is that bullets from the police hit the suspect. For all we know, they could be been firing blindly or even accidentally. Of course, the most common reason would be the police were trying to shoot the suspect and succeeded, and further context would probably be built to show the police's intent. But by itself, this sentence says nothing more than the fact that police bullets hit the suspect.

The police shot at the suspect.

This sentence shows that the police took aim before firing, and that they shot toward the suspect (likely to hit the suspect). It does not record whether they actually did hit the suspect. Without any other context, we only know what the police were trying to do. For all we know, they aimed at the suspect, but missed (or even hit someone else).