I don't know, duck, run, drop to the ground, get behind a car, etc. Anything but automatically kill the poor guy woth a garden hose nozzle. There's too much of this crap happening. Other innocent men watering their front gardens have been shot and killed by cops hiding behind a fence, shooting without warning. The least they can do is to give warning to drop "the weapon" and not kill innocents. Cops are bloodthirsty and reckless these days.
Your proposed ducking, running, dropping to the ground, etc doesn’t apply here, that was not an option for the two officers. In any event, such action is foolish where you and the assailant are both armed and in close quarters. Unless, of course you can move faster than a bullet.
Based on what we know from the article, clearly Zerby was not a “poor guy with a garden hose”. In this instance, the first shooter most certainly was attempting to save the life of a fellow officer. The fact Zerby was intoxicated doesn’t operate as a defense any more than it does for a drunk driver that wipes out a family in a head-on collision.
The flip side of this story is that of a relatively new officer with a wife and two young childen who was shot down because he was indecisive and someone got the drop on him.