” A cop who can’t disarm a woman with a knife without shooting her to death shouldn’t be on the force”
This is the most sensible statement on the thread. it’s not about whether they could shoot her, it’s about whether they should have.
I don’t believe they are trained to do that anymore.
They probably didn’t have to shoot her, but I think I’ll pass on the Meat Lover’s Delight for a few months.
Unfortunately that is simply wishful thinking. And it is wrong.
A knife is just as deadly as a gun at distances of up to 20 feet or so. A charging attacker can close and inflict a fatal wound in less than one second - even while being shot.
There are a surprisingly large number of such killings that have been recorded on video, and cops see those videos as a regular part of their training. It tends to make them very fast on the trigger.
Cops are generally trained to fire on a knife-wielding assailant at the first sign of forward movement. It should not be a surprise when they do.