He couldn’t have done any more to comply. Threw the gun down, raised his hands, stopped. Dead. That cop was more interested in shooting than looking first. Not cut out for the work.
Could easily be another poorly trained cop. Still disgusting.
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He could have dropped the gun at any point before that. If he had, he’d probably still be alive.
That’s really weak though.
The cop made up his mind before looking, that much is obvious. Kid didn’t reach for anything, or lunge forward, arms went up, at the same time. Cop was pulling the trigger before they even got to his shoulders.
It happening quickly is not an excuse for any cop to fire before they look. That’s not how cops are trained. He obviously didn’t even try to look. Another sad turn of events.
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Not surprising considering a lot of cops were soldiers. They are trained to shoot first and ask questions later.
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Doesn’t even come to that many times. Sworn police officer - oh you’re free to go Sir. See the Christopher comission report of how police departments self investigate and stand up for their buddies, destroy or hide evidence, etc
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My impression is the cop has poor reflexes and was operating from that perspective, out of his own personal fear, not a rational fear based on the behavior/actions of the suspect.
Going back to the point about people doing this job take it knowing it’s dangerous, and they have a responsibility even in situations like this to not act without cause. Even if they’re really scared.
That’s the job, not to fire the security blanket every time they are, but to be able to make solid decisions under that duress.
At best, horrible cop vetting and training is rearing its head.
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And that head is pushed back into Pandora’s box by prosecutors grand juries and lawmakers who want to keep things as they are.
We’ll see. I’d estimate, based on the video from the cop’s own perspective, that this does not go down as a ‘good’, self defense shooting.
I don’t want to project motivations or anything, the video says a lot about the officer’s level of competence though imo.
The fact that cops operate this way is disturbing. They operate no different than many third world countries.
I’m not necessarily disputing it, but how come you don’t mind making that determination here before all the facts are in? That’s all I did in the other case, yet you criticized me for doing so.
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Care to make a bet?
Nice to have a little respite from the ACAB circle jerk. 
The gun’s in his right hand. It is clear in the stills. He drops it out of view and then turns, raising his hands.
Again, you can’t pin the whole blame on the cop. Where criminals have easy access to guns, the police tend to assume everyone they confront is armed. Often, they’re right.
This is a difficult situation - but if this is a justifiable shooting, where the kid is complying with directions, we might as well just slow cops to shoot people in the back.
No, they’re not. The rules of engagement last time I was in Afghanistan was much stricter, including positive id of weapon.
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I see no way that cop gets convicted on anything.
then what are the ROE for cops? That as soon as someone puts his hand down he’s reaching for a gun and therefore shoot first?
Maybe if they keep hiring soldiers as cops might as well put them under UCMJ.
Orders could have been more explicit: “Drop the gun. Raise your hands. Then turn around.”
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This. He turned around so fast with a blind hand. I can’t fault the cop at all.