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“....The suspect started to crawl. The cop then shot the suspect to death.....”

Let me fix that for you.

The suspect started to crawl. The suspect reached for his waistband, the cop then shot the suspect to death.

Could have been handled better, like cuff the guy while he was on the floor, hands behind his back, and legs crossed.
Having him crawl towards you was STUPID.

BUT, when the cops have guns trained on you, don’t reach toward your waistband. The jury got it right.

BUT, when the cops have guns trained on you, don’t reach toward your waistband. The jury got it right.

Oh please. Have you seen the waistband? Any cop that thinks something could be concealed in those shorts the victim was wearing shouldn't be on the force. And I wouldn't be surprised if the jury was threatened.

When you watch the video, the cop gave him many conflicting and confusing instructions. First he tells him to lay flat on the ground with his hands out stretched and his legs crossed and remain motionless, which Daniel does, then he tells him to put his hands interlocked and behind his head, which he does, then he asks the woman a question, then yells at her to shut up when she tries to answer. Then the cop yells at Daniel to keep his legs crossed and at the same time tells him to put his hands straight up in the air and then up and to get in a knelling position and crawl towards him. He then yells at him for not keeping his legs crossed. And all the while yelling that if he made a “mistake”, he’d be shot. And of course in order to crawl on his hands and knees, he’d have to put his hands back down on the floor.

I actually got on the floor of my living room in the same position as Daniel was in, with my legs crossed and tried to get into a kneeling position, I found that to be impossible. You simply can’t get into a kneeling or crawling position with your legs crossed like that. The only reason for that instruction to keep one’s legs crossed is to keep the suspect from moving toward you, so why yell at him to keep his legs crossed while at the same time instructing him to crawl toward the cop?

Could have been handled better, like cuff the guy while he was on the floor, hands behind his back, and legs crossed. Having him crawl towards you was STUPID.

Well of course that is what should have happened. When Daniel was lying flat on the floor with his hands outstretched in full view and his legs crossed, another LEO could have approached him, handcuffed him and searched for a weapon.

> when the cops have guns trained on you, don’t reach toward your waistband <

In theory you are, of course, correct. But in high-stress situations civilians often don’t think clearly. If a cop cannot take that into account, we are all in trouble.

Anyway, I’ve got a question for you. Consider those shoot-or-don’t-shoot drills police recruits go through. A target pops up. The target shows a picture of a man holding a shotgun. The recruit is supposed to shoot.

Another target pops up. It’s a man holding a baby. The recruit is supposed to hold his fire.

Now let’s suppose a target pops up of a man with his hand on his waistband. No gun is seen. Should the cop shoot?