You are assuming that the police officer was in possession of the all the facts. He was behind the assailant who was waiving “something” in a threatening manner at his partner. He made an unfortunate decision, yes, but why do so many Freepers automatically take the anti-cop position in these incidents. I know that neither you nor I are in possession of the facts, and you probably never had to make a split second decision that may have meant life or death.
Like the cops say, better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.
How about the death of an innocent man who was not physically capable of killing the officer?
That is not an “unfortunate decision”.
That is “murder”.
I can think of several ways to “disarm” the victim of his pen.
None of which result in the murder of said victim.
If I can do it, that any officer, who has been *trained* to do just that can do it.
He *chose* to murder the man.
Any police officer that can't tell the difference between a pen and a knife from a few feet away doesn't belong on the force, simply on grounds of low IQ alone.
However, I would note that when the officer is not in possession of all the facts, that is the absolute worst time for him to be whipping out his sidearm and blasting away. Theoretically, use of the service pistol is supposed to be an absolute last resort, the kind of thing you do only once you have positive ascertained that a credible threat actually exists - not when you just see an object in somebody's hand that you haven't identified as a weapon - especially when the assailant is a one-armed man in a wheelchair. Don't they teach tactical sense at cop school anymore?