It all boils down to a matter of preservation. Follow commands by the police and you won't be put in this situation (yes, I know you can cite situations where citizens follow police commands exactly and are still shot. It does happen). But again, let's review:
Already covered this point. A victim has no obligation to follow the orders of his attackers.
- Police are in an area that was dictated dangerous, where suspects are likely armed
- The suspect nearly hit the officer preceding the incident (let's not forget that)
- The suspect was likely told to keep their hands in the air and not move
- The suspect turned around and reached in his pocket
-No crime committed
-The officers blew out his car tires with spike strips, and the driver AVOIDED hitting them
-The victim doesn't have to follow the commands of his attacker
-No crime committed
Looking at that list, I can guarantee you nearly every police officer would make the decision to shoot, and rightfully so.
Every police officer is in the right to ambush people with spike traps and shoot them in the back when they get out of their vehicle?
If the officer waited another second, it's certainly a possible that the officer near the trees would be wounded or even dead.
Dead from what? His holstered weapon?
The simple fact of the matter is that it's clear he at some sort of intent to do damage
Putting his hands up is intent to do damage? If he wanted to do damage, wouldn't he have exited his car with one of his rifles, or drawn his weapon instead of getting out and putting his hands up?
he didn't listen to police commands and he turned around to reach for what was reasonably presumed a gun. If police have a gun pointed at you and are giving you commands, the only logical thing to do is to follow them, not disobey them and reach in your pockets.
You don't have to listen to gunmen threatening to shoot you. If he had in fact drawn his weapon, he could have defended himself against his assassins.
You can go every which way claiming that this is immoral, that police do not have any right, etc. But I really urge you to think in the mindset of an officer in this situation. Try to understand their position. Review the 4 bullet points above, and put yourself in the shoes of an officer.
So, if I was a bloodthirsty officer and laid out a trap for this car, then when I damage & wreck the car, I draw my weapon and immediately threaten the car passenger who came out voluntarily with his hands up, when he turns around, I shoot him in the back, then flashbang the other occupants of the vehicle.
Yeah. I feel great in the officer's boots.
Would you wait for the suspect to draw a gun?
Do I assume everyone is about to kill me, and kill everyone first, just to make sure? No. If someone did draw a gun on me, would I be justified in then killing them? Yes.
If you do, that cuts the amount of time that you have to react before he fires.
Fires what? His weapon was holstered.
Chances are that you fire after the suspect does.
Fires what? The victim didn't have his weapon drawn.
In that case, now your fellow officer is wounded, and you had the opportunity to stop that.
There weren't any officers wounded, because the victim never attempted to wound them.
Also, what state was this in? I could be wrong, but a sizable portion of states do not allow open carry without a permit.
No, actually, people have the right to keep and bear arms.