we had one locally a while back...guy took a pellet rifle into a bank, let the calvary surround the place, then ran across the open parking lot towards cops...
shopping for camping gear and applying for a *future* costco card indicates he had things planned that required life...
I don’t think he went to Costco looking to be killed by the cops, but his actions at the moment of the shooting weren’t rational. All he had to do was follow one command, and he would have lived. He may have made a decision to die at the last moment. Considering the levels of drugs in his system, he didn’t have much respect for his own life.
As best I can figure it, the picture I posted was used at the inquest as a photo of Scott’s gun on the ground at Costco after the shooting. Mosher has testified he didn’t realize until after the shooting that it was in a holster.
If he had been committing suicide, he’d have whipped out his gun or made a verbal threat...something like, “You won’t take me alive” or maybe lunged towards the cop.
I think the gun in its holster, hammer down on a 1911 style pistol speaks volumes about Scott’s intent. Not suicide. Not killing. Disarming. That the cops didn’t realize that means they were too prepped to shoot, or have too nervous a temperament to be street cops.
If, as a CCW permittee, I ever shoot a guy whose 1911 has the hammer down and is still in its holster, I expect the DA to be a lot less lenient with me than he is being with Mosher - a lower standard for trained cops than for “civilians”.