That was pretty intense. When an officer has to respond to a “man with gun” call, they must be extremely on edge. This poor guy was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, way too nervous and probably drunk, but boy did he mess up when he turned around. Very unfortunate, but I can understand how this video acquitted the cop of murder.
Yeah, this is one of those situations that you find yourself wishing the officers had been issued ballistic shields so the idiot’s (and you are an idiot if police officers are telling you to do something at gunpoint and you quickly reach for your waist) action could possibly have been parsed by officers behind the safety of their shields without having to have had the automatic reaction of opening fire.
The officer (Philip Brailsford) is still fired because he broke police department policy by having "you're f***ed" custom engraved into his rifle dust cover.
No sympathy for them being "on edge". That is their job. They need to handle it without using torture tactics and then shooting unarmed people in cold blood.
This poor guy was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, way too nervous and probably drunk, but boy did he mess up when he turned around.
He didn't "mess up" and he wasn't in the "wrong place". He was murdered.