He stopped a black guy, in what looks to be a not so great part of town. Black guy does sort of make a fast move to get into the car, apparently to retrieve his licence, but the cop misinterprets it, believing the guy was going for a gun or something.
The cop freaked out. Does that make him a criminal? Not necessarily, but it does make him incompetent to say the least, and mostly at fault.
I was a little surprised that at least on the video, the guy was a little quick to dive into his car. I figure most minority males (like me), know better than to make quick moves like that when encountering LEO.
I have had a few encounters with police, and I can tell you that I don't "trust" them with their snap judgments, any more than I would trust the average idiot. I move in slow motion, that's for sure. Maybe one day I can talk about the experience I had of being pulled over, and having 4 cops pull their guns and all aim them at me. Moved like a sloth, I did that day...
There is no law against freaking out. The cop is not judged for that. A person becomes a criminal after he commits a criminal act. Actions are the only thing that makes one a criminal. (Until people start getting punished for their private thoughts.)
It will be up to the court to classify the cop's actions. If I were to guess, the cop will be found guilty. He escalated a simple situation into a dead end by improperly ordering the subject and then misinterpreting his commanded activity.
The citizen is not required to know the police procedures. This is one of the reasons why the LEO is supposed to be in control - to tell the person to move here or there; to fetch this or that; to guide the person through the procedure. As it appears to me at this time, this here cop failed to command the subject to safely perform the necessary actions. Others have already mentioned that the cop never asked where the license is. As the driver was out of the car, he had no legal requirement to have it with him - and that broke the template of a standard traffic stop. The cop was unable to "recalculate the new route," in GPS terms, then issued a wrong order ("get out" instead of "freeze",) and started shooting when the citizen did exactly as ordered.
But, of course, it's up to the court to assign guilt. This is just what I gathered from this thread.