I'd much rather be tased than have my head slammed into a concrete wall.
"Once it was on the ground he could see it wasn't a weapon. But in the half second he had to react after seeing the suspect turn toward him with something in his hand he could have thought it was a weapon."
Unless that officer has better acceleration than a Shelby Cobra, he was sprinting towards the subject at top speed with the intent of hitting him long before the "half second" before he ever would have seen the item in the guys hand. I said before and stand by my opinion, that his full body block on that guy in that proximity to the wall is every bit as poor an exercise of judgment as taking out his sidearm and blazing away at the guy with a crowd of innocent bystanders standing directly behind him. He had his blinders on, lost his situational awareness and exercised poor judgment resulting in this guy sustaining a near life-ending, and certainly life altering injury.
There were alternate courses of action available, and he chose poorly. The taxpayers of Seattle, who he is supposed to protect and defend will end up paying for it, as will the the guy who spends the rest of his life in bed, and the guys wife who has to change her husband's diaper for the rest of their lives.
Now...there were two people who made bad decisions...I've also previously stated the guy wasn't too bright for running...but as far as I know, he wasn't under any type of oath to serve the public, and isn't trained and paid to exercise good judgment in stressful situations. The officer is.
So why do you think the reporter didn’t mention the object that was thrown on the ground by the suspect? Why do you think she was trying to portray the police as dressed in anything but easily recognizable police uniforms?