I think I saw the video of the events you are referring to and I could see why a cop could confuse a cane with a gun. That straight round shaft looked a lot like a barrel especially when pointed in the cop’s direction. Unfortunate event but I could see why it happened and if some of the people here are half so trigger happy as they claim they would have shot the guy too.
I played laser tag one time in a huge tree story place, with two teams playing against each other. Each team wore a different color. I though for sure I would just shoot anyone because I had no training. I was surprised at myself for determining in a split second what team the person was on before I shot.