I looked to me like the officer was shooting at her tires in an attempt to stop her. I think at that point that officer did not know what they were dealing with- at least two of her children looked like adults, one was 18 and the one that got out and fought with the officer was 14 but adult size. One officer saw a gun that turned out to be a toy but may have looked real through the window. She was out of control, her son was out of control and neither were complying with officer commands. She had been speeding on a mountain road and that put everyone on the road in danger. I do not think the situation required deadly force but if this story had played out where they let her drive away without doing everything in their power to stop her and she had wrecked and killed her family or another family I think many would be screaming that the LEO should have done everything to stop her.
Of course he “saw a gun”. The threshold of justification is so incredibly low they can get away with anything.
The cops failed big time here. They allowed a simple traffic stop to escalate, failed to control it, and then used deadly force and put the lives of several children at risk.
If he thought he saw a gun why did he try to shoot out the tires?
Horse pucky