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. . . . That would require of level of either intent or WILLFUL negligence that is simply not justified by what we do know.
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I would agree with that, but the rest of that paragraph is a tangle of contradictions I can't even begin to unravel.
I'm not saying they should be held criminally liable. I actually believe they were acting in good faith. But I believe they mishandled the situation terribly up to the the moment they had to shoot, and that their mishandling contributed to creating the need to shoot.
You simply cannot give multiple, confusing, ambiguous, and illogical commands in a high stakes scene like that and expect to get a good result.
How about this. . . you have your officers in place for cover, at the low ready and You (Sergeant, for example) AND NO ONE ELSE says:
"Sir, may we talk to you for a second, please keep your hands where we can see them ok? Thanks. We have a report from security that you are armed, and they are pretty worried for customer safety.
"
Without touching it where is the weapon right now sir? Thank you. Now, keeping your hands where we can see them, could you help us out by turning around and putting your hands on the wall while we pat you for weapons?" Etc, etc. . .
If he went sideways, they would already have the drop on him and it would have ended like it did anyway. But we now know that wasn't this man's character, as he was clearly attempting to comply.
Now what would have been wrong with that?