Suppressive fire

Every Grand Theft Auto so far has answered a firefight the same way: aim at the person and empty the magazine. Nelson describes a second option. You shoot near somebody rather than at them, and the point is the effect on their nerve, not on their body. They take cover, they stop advancing, and the few seconds that buys is the whole mechanic.

He is explicit about why it exists. The aim is to be able to escape a situation without killing police or civilians, and he says there are plenty of situations you can get through with nobody dead. That is a notable thing for Rockstar to put on the record about a series whose reputation is built the other way.

In the chase Nelson was demonstrating, the patrol car flipped because Jason shot out its tyres rather than its occupants, and every officer inside walked away from it. It reads as a small thing until you notice it is the difference between a wanted level that decays and one that does not.