[[I agree that he overreacted. The question is why he reacted as he did.]]
And that in a nutshell is the bottom line
you bring up a good point about him reacting the way he did immediately after the shooting=-
It’s also a possibility that the other fella did escalate the issue to the point where the cop reacted like he did automatically- but as you state- it remains to be seen when the facts are presented-
The case is much like the Trayvon Martin case. There was so much released to the internet, I don’t know of anything that wasn’t revealed. Oulson’s wife placed her hand on his chest to restrain him. The bullet that killed him went through her hand first.
Reeves was apparently as surprised as everyone else. To this day, I doubt he knows why he responded the way he did.