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Notes -
I didn’t see this before I commented upthread that a reasonable cop in that situation could have decided that lethal force was necessary. If anything, the video from this angle only strengthens my previous claim: before, I thought that the cop who fired his gun did not know whether the suspect had a knife in his right hand, but could reasonably have feared that he did; now, I see that the cop did, in fact, know with certainty that the suspect was holding a knife.
AFAICT the only argument against the cop’s actions is that the suspect was already on the ground at the time shots were fired. This is true, but a knife-wielding maniac on the ground can still pose a deadly threat to those around him, particularly when the knife and the hand holding it have just wriggled free of an LEO’s grasp and when it is not clear that the knife-wielder was successfully tased. The fact that the suspect appeared to be on the ground at the precise moment of the shooting is not dispositive of anything: he had, a few seconds prior, forcefully regained full control of a deadly weapon, and thus an officer could reasonably fear that he would strike someone with it.
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