Likewise, if a person has a gun in their waistband and makes the decision to draw and fire it, they automatically have the advantage over someone who must process that threat and respond. Thus, if officers wait until the gun starts to come up, it's too late.
If you reach for a gun, you are in the midst if initiating a deadly force encounter. We don't judge incidents with 20/20 hindsight. We judge them from that moment in time, from the perspective of a reasonable officer.
Thus, the only thing that we examine, is whether it was objectively reasonable to fire at someone who reached for a weapon (according to two separate eyewitnesses) after being told not to move.
Remember, the police in that situation do not get the benefit of knowing all the extra information that you get to examine after the fact. They know that they have a guy with a gun in front of them, and he reaches for the weapon. That's it. Make an objectively reasonable decision in less than 2 seconds.
And others who say he didn't. I guess we'll need to see the videos, if available.
the police do not have to wait until a gun is pointed at them before they fire.
Obviously. In fact the person does not even have to be holding a gun at all. He could be holding a taco for all they care, but if the cop wrongly mistakes that taco for a gun he feels he has free reign to open fire. And therein lies the problem.
By the way, the Tueller drill is pseudo-scientific nonsense based on a misinterpreted article from a trade magazine article in the 1980's. It was originally posed as a piece of "rule of thumb" style advice in that article and has not been scientifically verified in a controlled test.
Only one problem with your scenario. In this case the officers already had their guns drawn and aimed at the individual. Reaction time to simply squeeze the trigger is almost zero.
If the man’s gun never came out of the holster they had absolutely no reason to kill him.