At the risk of sounding cold or calloused....what’s the cop freaking out about? He did the only thing he could do in that situation and he did the right thing. Frankly, it wouldn’t have bothered me had I been in his place. The perp left him no choice.
He is freaking out because he was forced to kill someone. I don’t know a single cop who was forced to kill someone who did not pay a heavy emotional toll. And I know several. It’s easy to talk about what one would do in such situations, it’s another thing to actually kill someone. And as a former prosecutor, I made the very difficult decision on more than one occasion to seek the death penalty. It was a horribly difficult decision. More so to ask a jury to give it, then worst of all, going and witnessing it carried out. Knowing I had a hand in taking a life. Making the decision to take a human life isn’t easy and it is emotionally devastating. I grieved for that officer. And I know he will struggle with this for a long time. I want that type of cop. Not the trigger happy kind.
One was particularly decisive. It was obviously hard for him but it had to be done.