Both the 2 cops and the victim may have had legitimate reason to be fearful, especially if the neighborhood was bad. Most likely a tragic accident. The victim didn’t deserve to die, but neither did the cop intend to murder. Arguable charge of manslaughter, but even that could be based largely on hindsight.
Its difficult when you want to be thankful and respectful of the good cops out there and the hard/dangerous work they do, when something like this happens.
But cops have a higher responsibility when they are given the gun and badge. Holding people responsible, regardless of whether a resultant death was intentional or negligent or even accidental, is something we, as a society, have drifted away from in exchange for excusing such things because of ______(fill in your excuse here).
This cop, with a higher responsibility, used the poorest of judgement, deserves to be held responsible, and should never carry a gun and badge again.
There are right ways to handle situations, there are wrong ways to handle situations, and occasionally, there are no-win situations. This was not a no-win situation. It was handled wrong and someone is dead as a result.
I have respected soldiers in blue since my youth, but I will say as I have often said, for many reasons, many cops today are not motivated to "protect and serve". They are motivated to be the cowboy with a gun and badge, expecting to be excused if they screw up because, well they are shielded by the badge.