It is actually a very common human behavior.
At that moment, the officer could well have lost his life, for distant benefit of others.
Where as if he didn’t engage, he lived and others paid.
So, it was kind of rational in a game theory type way.
On the other hand, we have no idea of how little training these officers had. They might not of even shot more than a few rounds their entire career.
We have no idea as to the espre, cohesion of the Police. They might well feel, and at least at this level were correct, that fellow street officers would not risk coming to their aid.
With my suspicion that these men were poorly trained, poorly paid, with low moral and leadership and most likely correct notions that if they engaged the scum, that they would not receive support, then it isn’t too hard to believe what happened.
The photographer showed the partial instinct to engage the terrorist, but like many urban males, was/is unfamiliar with weapons.
From what I have read, the Indian employees behaved very well to their guests. As also the later on, more trained assault forces and the firemen.
People’s response in these conditions is largely based on self image. People will fight harder to perserve their self image than their lives. The Marine Corps (and the military in general) know this and try to instill in their personnel the self image of tiger rather than a lamb.