Are there any police officers in the FFA? I wish we had someone who could explain to us when it is or isn't OK to shoot in these situations.
But anyhow, here are my opinions, based on what we know, as of this morning. I am betting:
1. The shooting, whether justified or not, was based on factors specific to the situation, and not on racism.
2. If the shooting was unjustified, it was due to mistakes made by the officer and not deliberate intent to do so.
3. The police in general bungled what happened after the shooting, and in so doing created an atmosphere which confirmed suspicion among black residents that deliberate harm of a racial nature was done. But this bungling was just that; nothing deliberate.
In short as so often in these type of situations, nobody may be to blame. People in authority make mistakes; others believe those mistakes to be deliberate and naturally get angry; this causes the authorities to make more mistakes; and that causes some people to get angrier still. Sad rule of life.
Some commentary on "lethal force" by lawofficer.com
Two takeaways:
• The suspect must be a lethal threat or reasonably perceived as one.
An individual does NOT need to be armed to be reasonably considered a lethal threat. This is taught in self defense firearm classes as well as LEO training. In personal self defense cases they look for Capacity and Intent to do lethal harm. I can't speak to the baseline for LEO.
• A minimum number of officers fire a minimum number of rounds.
Minimum number of rounds is highly subjective. In the heat of the moment, its tough to expect an officer to fire, wait to assess the threat, fire again, etc. I think it's reasonable to expect any shooting to be done in bursts...particularly if the threat is immediate. In this case the officer emptied about 1/3 to half of his magazine into the suspect. IF it turns out the suspect was charging him, I'm not sure thats easy to prove as excessive against a man of this size.