Nonsense, it was NEVER going to be 1st degree, and 2nd degree was full of holes; voluntary manslaughter looked likely but now all bets are off.
Ok, I stand corrected on the charges. My post was all out of whack in that regard. I apologize.
Nevertheless, the shooting itself wasn’t just bad police procedure and seriously flawed human judgement. It fell into the category of a criminal act.
I am afraid you don’t understand murder. Where is the mitigating circumstance that reduces this to manslaughter? The victim is fifty feet away and still running when the officer takes deliberate aim and shoots him five times in the back. Premeditation can occur in an instant. I would argue that somewhere between the first and the fifth shot the officer had to reflect on what was happening and make the consioious decision to kill the man. That’s first degree murder.