He actually said in a calm voice, “Officer I do have a firearm with me.” The officer told him not to reach for it and he responded calmly several times, “I am not reaching for it.” The officer NEVER told him to place his hands on the wheel. He did tell him to produce his documents. So the victim was faced with two contradictory directives, do not reach for the gun and reach for your documents. For many LEOs the greatest desire that directs their conduct is to make it home to their families. If so, they are in the wrong line of work. And I have said this to the many LEOs I know which include and have included a half dozen family members with the NYPD.
Dash cam video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ac7Zblqyk
It seems a lot of these shootings happen after LEOs give people contradictory commands. I don’t know it it’s a failure of training or lack of intelligence or both.
Here is where I fault LEO training.
When a person self identifies as a CCW, the officer should respond with “For both of our saftey, please place your hands on the steering wheel.”
The next step is it identify WHERE the firearm is located. “Without taking your hands off the steering wheel, can you tell me where the firearm is located?”
The next question should be where their CCW permit is located.
The response then determines the next action. If the response indicates that the firearm is NOT on the person, the next activity should be to have the person step out of the vehicle.
If the response indicates that the person has the firearm on their person, this becomes more problematic. I recommend telling the person that having their firearm within reach is a cause for concern by the officer for their own safety. Draw their own firearm if not already out, and then have the driver open the car door with their left hand. Then take a position so that the car door is between the officer and the driver. Finally, instruct the driver to use ONE hand, and retrieve the firearm and place it on the dash and to do so SLOWLY.
Once the firearm is on the dash, have the driver exit the vehicle.
[full disclosure] I am not a LEO, however I have trained LEO and SWAT. Not currently in that occupation.