“Every time you get a call that someone is armed, threatening, under the influence of drugs, and reaches for his gun when you first approach him, do your politeness routine. Let us know how it goes.”
Except you are comparing apples with oranges. Scott was visibly exiting the store calmly - so much so that 6 seconds before shooting, the cops didn’t realize he was the person they had been called about.
Nor did Scott reach for his gun as the cops approached him. As best as I can figure out the testimony, someone (Mosher) touched Scott from behind. Scott turned and faced him, while also touching his gun - commonly done to see if it is still there after someone puts their hand on you from behind. The cops then said ““Put your hands where I see them now, drop it, get on the ground, get on the ground...” and opened fire - almost in one motion. As quickly as they could say it, they opened fire - TWO seconds from the first spoken word to shooting.
That says a lot about what happened.
In roughly TWO seconds, Mosher touched Scott, Scott turned to face him and also reached to check on his weapon. The cops shouted “Put your hands where I see them now, drop it, get on the ground, get on the ground...” and fired - all in the next two seconds.
So here is your 6 seconds sequence:
During the first two seconds, Scott is identified to the cops and Mosher moves behind him.
During the middle two seconds, Mosher touches Scott, who pushes Mosher’s arm away while turning to face him & checking for his gun.
During the final two seconds, the cops start issuing commands and open fire. Frankly, Scott never stood a chance. What he did was immaterial. In the course of 4 seconds, he went from exiting the store to a bullet in his heart. Try it yourself - you’re walking along, believing yourself to be a law abiding person. In 4 seconds, someone touches you from behind, you turn, they start giving commands and point their guns at you and open fire...what would you have done? Would you have realized, that quickly, what was happening and dropped to your knees while raising your hands? You have TWO SECONDS from first word to death!
If the time line posted on http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/306409.php is accurate, Scott never had a chance. He was killed before he could realize that HE was the suspect, and that the cops were ready to use deadly force.
Now, think about MY way...don’t confront at the entrance because it is crowded. Wait until the parking lot, then walk towards him - so he can see you - and simply ask him if he can talk to you for a minute. If that had happened, do you think Scott would have drawn his gun and opened fire?
Remember, to fire Scott’s gun, he needs to pull it out of the holster & rack the slide to arm it, and then fire. Is there ANYTHING that makes you think Scott was interested in killing any cops that day? ANYTHING?
No one has accused Scott of having a gun in his hand as he exited the store. No one has accused him of acting erratically leaving the store. No one - including the cops - looked and thought “That man is behaving dangerously!”
No one.
Yet within 4-5 seconds of being identified to the cops, Scott was fatally wounded.
And you call that good police work? Based on the time line, it is at least manslaughter - taking actions that a reasonable person could expect to result in the death of an innocent person.
That means Scott unclipped his holster from his rear waistband and moved it and the gun in front of himself very quickly if you're timeline is correct, which we don't know.
I said no such thing...... as a former deputy sheriff I agree with all your points shy of implied comments.
Another interesting point that you brought up:
We NEVER heard about the state of Erik's weapon during the inquest. Was there a round in the chamber, or did he have to rack it to load the piece? The assistant DA was supremely disinterested in such trivialities...
Moonman62 & his ilk like to pretend that the mere proximity of Erik's holstered gun to Erik was a sort of "death ray emanation" that imperiled the circular firing squad of the panicking police officers.