This showed up on the survival podcast as well. It is a stupid stunt for the photographer, and most of us would walk away from the line.
Some of the folks involved in military operations did note that firing in real-life situations can only be trained for by using real people downrange, with shooters who are highly skilled and trained as well. Seems reasonable, although I have only played an operator in my mind.
That does not excuse Tactical Response for doing this in what appears to be a fairly normal "shoot the ordinary target downrange" situation to get "cool" pictures. The owner of Tactical Response who also frequents and is a sponsor of the survival podcast has not come forward with an explanation as of this morning.