I would really like to see what happened before the video. One thing we don’t see is what the police told him to do
I don’t know what the police instructions were, but if he was repeatedly told to stop and to keep his hands where they could see them, then my guess is he would still be alive if he had complied.
The one thing that concerns me is the threat escalated fairly slowly and steadily as he strolled back to the car, but there was no sense of urgency in any police commands I heard. They went from casual to shooting very quickly when they could have been urgently telling his to stop, stay away from the car, etc.
You can watch the video at the link.
It is clear. He turns around and walks a great distance back to the car, all the while police are giving commands to him to stop what he is doing. He doesn’t walk two feet over to the window, it is a long distance and they seemed to direct commands at him the entire time.
I was not there at the scene. But there was a helicopter there and a car parked in the middle of the road with a man who was behaving erratically. Not pulled off to the side. In the middle of the road.
Someone who knows more about the training cops receive on this might know more about it, but isn’t it possible they train them to try not to escalate a situation, both verbally and physically until they have to? I don’t have any direct experience there, but I know that tension and fear is extremely contagious, and people who deal in situations of tension and fear are taught to control their outward displays of what they might feel inside, in order to keep a situation under control.
In my opinion, he would certainly be alive if he complied, unless, like some people, you think people are being shot for no reason whatsoever.