Really? If all you can see is some of the shaft, and the rest of it is hidden behind the person holding it? To me, the shaft of a cane and the barrel of a rifle look very much alike.
I have three canes. One of the three I use most of the time. Not a one of them even remotely looks like a rifle or shotgun barrel. I drive a pick up most of the time. Because my truck has a bed cover the cane is in the front seat beside me. So should I be shot if I moved my cane? It's very poor training and very poor supervision. A Rookie out of the academy should be required to spend a minimum of three years preferably five with an experienced officer. A lot of this stems from one patrolman per car. Put two cops back in patrol cars. Have the senior officers train and evaluate the junior officers actions and judgments.
But as one poster said if as cop approaches a pick up with an open bed the cops will look in the bed as he approaches the driver for visible reason to further investigate such as beer cans etc. IOW the story stinks.
None of the ones that I seen did but, that is just me. I never saw a pink elephant but other people told me they did. So, what I am saying is, that if someone says they that they saw something, how can it be proven that they didn’t. I don’t necessarily believe the deputy but I don’t have to. He is South Carolina’s problem. Sooner or later he will run out of people from North Carolina to shoot and start working on people from South Carolina.