As a former LEO myself, I can only say that I’ve never seen a “trigger happy cowboy.” At least in my jurisdiction, even drawing your weapon for anything other than a felony stop was rare. Of my peers, some were less mature than others, some were superstars, and some were lazy—In other words, the same cross section of personality types and foibles you see in other walks of life.
Sometimes the most intelligent and dedicated officer would have an unexplainable lapse in judgement and stack up his car, and sometimes the guy you had pegged for a well-intentioned idiot would surprise you with flawless performance under pressure.
My point is, whatever the reason this officer fired, I doubt his peers (or even him) saw it coming. The one thing I *never* saw was a cop signing into service all excited over who they might get to shoot today.
That said, choices have consequences. Cop supporters often cite the life-risking aspect of the job in their appreciation for the police, but the far greater risk in the profession is making a career-ending decision in the blink of an eye.
The latter often has a direct influence on the former as going through the mental flowchart on your use-of-force pyramid induces action latency that can get you killed.
In this case, it does not appear to be a clean shoot. I’d speculate adrenaline and improper weapon safety before assuming nefarious intent. It’s unfortunate for the therapist, and for the officer involved...But even more so for dutiful cops across the country whose lives will be at increased risk as a result of this video.
“does not appear to be a clean shoot”
A clean shoot is something you talk about when deer hunting not when defending yourself.
You see, even the terminology is inappropriate for use on American citizens.
Forgive me, I am sure I will get flamed for this, but that thought process is exactly what is wrong.
Seems to me there was a huge mistake in leadership here.
No one took command, or did a bad job of it.
Otherwise it would have been quickly determined the guy wasn’t armed.
Sure, assume the worst at first- for safety- but then quickly gather information and get control.