shoot to kill at

[James Harbeck]

I saw the following in today's New York Times email update:

It is the first written proof that border guards were told to shoot
to kill at anyone trying to escape to West Germany.

It sounds odd to me, but evidently for the writer "shoot to kill" is
a unit that, like "shoot", can take "at" rather than a phrase such
that it would be natural to say "shoot to kill anyone..." -- which is
what I would have tended towards.

James Harbeck.

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