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Then perhaps the departments need to have officers involved in legitimate shootings cleared by a department psychiatrist before returning to duty. I watched the video.. the officer demanded the man get the license. The man reached into the truck and was shot. You could hear him yelling, “I got the license.. you asked me to get the license.. it’s right here”. Bad shooting and if it was my son, or my husband that was shot like this.. I wouldn’t want the officer treated leniently.

I watched this several times; don't know what happened, but it did not look good. We really need to know what happened. What was the officer thinking? Note that the motorist seemed to abruptly reach into his car; not a good move. Let us see what comes out in the trial.

There is nothing the victim could have done to avoid being shot. The officer shot him for promptly obeying the officer's orders. You can hear it on the video. The officer told the victim to get his license. The victim turned to reach into his car for his license, turned around with his license held out and the officer shot him.

Listen to the officer's tone of voice ordering the victim to get his license. The cop was excited then. He had already made the decision to shoot if the victim moved quickly, but the same excited tone of voice told the victim that he had better obey immediately.

The cop and his apologists can't have it both ways. If he wanted the man to move slowly, he should have said so. His tone of voice said he demanded instant obedience.

This cop should not have been on the street, period. He was a bomb waiting to go off. I completely agree with the poster you quoted:

"Then perhaps the departments need to have officers involved in legitimate shootings cleared by a department psychiatrist before returning to duty."

For the record, I have @ 800 hours experience in police brutality litigation, and @ 40 hours in reviewing, for my state, the propriety of shootings by police officers.

Letting this officer back on the street was negligence by his superiors. His degree of prior stress is not a factor in his potential criminal liability for shooting the victim, but would be a factor in sentencing.

His law enforcement career is over. No law enforcement officer can safely employ him in a sworn capacity.