Thanks for clarifying but I should have been clearer. I was thinking more of a shot into the ground near the dog before it approached. (If it did at all, which isn't extremely clear from the video.)
And what is the range of 50 or so shotgun pellets fired into the air? Certainly not that of a round even as small as a .22. Even if he did loose a round into the air, the area of the traffic stop looked to be fairly remote...on the side of a highway...no lights from any structures. There looked to be a lot of "somewhere" out there. Still, better safe than sorry? Who can say?
I am not a LEO either but my father-in-law is a 30 year police veteran, now retired. He spent most of those years on the street in New York. He has seen the video and also shares my opinion, which is this:
The officer panicked and fired. Period. He should be disarmed and removed from contact with the local citizenry. To defend his actions and hold him up as an example of a normal law enforcement officer, just doing his job, does a disservice to all other police officers with a brain...or a backbone.
Not only that. Every shot fired is a shot that can't be used again - why waste one firing at nothing? My training has been that if one's going to bother to fire a shot, it had better be on target and effective.
The officer panicked and fired. Period. He should be disarmed and removed from contact with the local citizenry.
I agree here, but then I begin to disagree...
To defend his actions and hold him up as an example of a normal law enforcement officer, just doing his job, does a disservice to all other police officers with a brain...or a backbone.
I fear that this officer is an exemplar of the attitude amongst the younger, more recently trained police. That is what is frightening...