[Zhang Fei]

IMHO, it was a good shoot. If NYPD had waited or tried a non-lethal means and a citizen got hurt... people would be criticizing them for not protecting them. He was acting crazy, had a large knife and mobile... suicide by cop was his choice (not NYPD’s)

I share your view. It's just that they had pepper spray on hand when they should have had tasers. And the ubiquity of patrol cars (not to mention precinct HQ's, which are within a mile of each other) tells me that tasers are not part of the standard non-lethal NYPD kit. The long record of multi-million dollar payouts from NYPD entanglements in dubious but successful (thanks to NYC juries) wrongful death lawsuits should have prepped them for this circumstance.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

Regular Police Officers in the NYPD do not carry Tasers. Sergeants do, and there was no doubt at least one Sergeant on the scene (and likely more), but not the POs.

[FreeReign]

It's just that they had pepper spray on hand when they should have had tasers. And the ubiquity of patrol cars (not to mention precinct HQ's, which are within a mile of each other) tells me that tasers are not part of the standard non-lethal NYPD kit. The long record of multi-million dollar payouts from NYPD entanglements in dubious but successful (thanks to NYC juries) wrongful death lawsuits should have prepped them for this circumstance.

Pepper spray is non lethal, guns can be lethal and tasers can be lethal, although less so.

I'm no expert on police procedures but I'm guessing that with the increase in tasering deaths, police procedures have become more binary.

Either you use non lethal force, pepper spray, or you use lethal force, a gun.