My son was in Marine Presidential Security Forces and then federal law enforcement. Based on that he has told me of his training and experience there is no way he would have fired his weapon. On the left side of her belt should have been a tazer. He would have probably not resorted to that and instead been able to deescalate the situation.
A knife is a DEADLY weapon. You don’t meet deadly force with lest-lethal force like a tazer. If the guy started moving on her, she was correct in using her pistol.
There’s an episode of ‘Adam-12’ where the cops answer a call about a woman waving a gun on her front porch. The cops take cover, then calmly resolve the situation. There’s no shooting. No one gets hurt.
Yeah, I know that’s TV, make-believe. But it’s also what the public expected to happen in those days. Today we rather expect the cops to shoot someone.
Maybe it’s a different kind of crazy person now. Or a different kind of cop. Or both.