Rob, what would you say the "minimum" reason would be that warrants a police officer taking out the strap and shooting a person?
the officer would fear for his life, or the life of others. Be in a position to stop a forcible felony. Be unable to use alternative non-lethal means. And he would have to show investigators, DA, IA, etc that he legit had no other options.
Police have a HIGHER standard of use of deadly force. They're trained. They have BP vests. They have tazers and batons and other means.
I don't know the exact circumstances - if the cop just had dude running at him and felt he NEEDED to shoot, well, he can explain that to his superiors. I'm sure they're doing what they did to zimmerman - let him retell the story over and over. If the story changes, as zimmermans did (getting more embellished each time), then there may be lies there. If it stays the same, and he was legit scared, well, it means the shoot would be legal.
Honestly, I think the cop just say big dude jaywalking and yelled something at him, like "d'fck out the street, man!". Big dude was amped up after a robbery, and rushed the cop... probably not knowing what to do, but knowing a radio call means his ass is going to jail. After a few seconds of struggle, big man drops back for a moment of indecision, and copper draws and fires. Most likely guess, but only a guess. legal shoot. It would be ideal to go for tazer, but for a smaller cop against a big dude, it was already a life/death struggle.
I don't think an equally big/strong copper pulls the trigger. Ronnie coleman 1998 probably doesn't shoot him. But this cop did, and if you rush a cop, you run that risk.
getbiggers want me to be the poster boy for the rioters lol... hardly the case. shoot looks legal but I want to see bullet holes.