Ken, here are the actual events as they took place:
Massey: No, I’m not. I’m not signing anything.
Gardner: Okay, hop out of the car.
Gardner then turns his back to the driver and walks back to set his clipboard down on the bumper of his car. As he’s doing this, Massey gets out of the car and approaches the police cruiser. As he does, he is pointing down in the direction he just came from. He is saying something unintelligible, but most likely about the speed limit sign. The officer acts as if he’s surprised to see the guy out of his vehicle, even though he just told him to ‘hop out of the car’.
Gardner: Turn around, put your hands behind your back. (by the time he gets to the word “hands” THE VERY FIRST TIME he’s already got his own hand on his taser and is pulling it from its holster)
Massey: ...continues to say something about the speed limit sign...
Gardner: Turn around, put your hands behind your back. NOW.
Massey: What the hell is wrong with you
At this point Massey TURNS AROUND and begins walking slowly toward his vehicle. It is clear from watching the tape that he had no idea why this cop was pulling a gun on him, and if you watch the CNN interview you’ll see that he does say he thought it was a real gun. He had a natural reaction which was to turn his back to the danger and attempt to distance himself from it.
Gardner: Turn around. Turn around. (Again, it’s not clear what the officer is asking him to do. Massey has already TURNED AROUND and is facing in the opposite direction from where he was the first time this directive was issued.)
Massey: What the heck’s wrong with you?
At this point, Gardner fires the taser.
That’s everything up to the point of the taser. Despite what some are saying about editing of the video, none of this portion of the video is edited.
I thought it was downright dangerous to tase the guy on the side of a busy highway. He could easily have fallen or lurched into oncoming traffic. The trooper did not look back to see if there was traffic coming from the time the guy started to walk away until he fired.
Very reckless, IMO.
What a putz.