This has turned into such a nasty fight, I may regret getting into it. But....I've been an LEO for more than three decades, and one thing I've learned is that one can never glean the real truth fron any newspaper or TV reporter source. They are there to sensationalize, and sell script. Pensacola is about three hundred miles form St. Pete, so you can guess why the St pete times is there; to sensationalize and stir the pot. They alone are famous for that. As far as this case goes, it seems to truly reek of corruption, bad judgement mixed with tragedy. If what we read is true (IF!) then that PO does not even belong as a mall cop. The several places I have worked would have washed him out a long time ago. As far as the bike rider goes, I sense he wrote his own script; if he stops, he lives. He didn't, so he doesn't. The Officer, though, owed a higher quality of care to ensure that the outcome he got should not have occurred.
The training officer program at that agency failed everybody. In the end, that in my opinion, is the root cause for this regrettable incident. It has to change.
“As far as the bike rider goes, I sense he wrote his own script; if he stops, he lives. He didn’t, so he doesn’t.”
Perhaps if he was a rapist, druggie, murderer or something else.
Negligent homocide for starters but we know that will never happen.