Even if there are people in the line of fire? I really doubt that. Did you notice nobody else ever drew their gun? Even the one who was about to run out of the restroom?
Obviously Clabough made a mistake, but the footage supports his explanation of why he fired a second shot.
Who cares about his "explanation" it was still an incredibly stupid thing to do. Nobody is doubting why he did it was still incredibly stupid and reckless. Do you think the cop he shot is ok with it because of his 'explanation"?
Of course they are supposed to show judgement but things like this are happening very fast and it doesn't take much pressure to pull the trigger. This is why in most LEO shootings the victims are shot multiple times. Just look at the shooting of Ma'Kiah Bryant and see how quickly she was shot 4 times. That this LEO drew his firearm has more to do with that the other LEO were in the process of struggling with Thompson.
There were 4 officers in the room 2 were struggling one was shooting and the other never drew their weapon. In the Bryant shooting he fired one after another this dimwit fired once and then paused and fired again they are nothing alike. What does pressure on the trigger have to do with anything. Come on man, I can't believe you are trying to explain that away.
I don't know if you've shot but pressure on the trigger does matter to how quickly you can shoot and why you shouldn't have your finger in the trigger guard until you shoot. This is why I'm saying I'm surprised he didn't shoot more. As to why the other LEO didn't draw his firearm that we don't know. You're presuming it's because he didn't think there was a lethal threat, which may be true but it also might be that he didn't act fast enough or even panicked. The fact is that Thompson was armed with a firearm, fired a shot that almost hit another LEO, was shot but appeared to continue to be struggling with the LEO. Those facts likely will justify this shooting and even the second shot.
Just to add why some might feel "I'm explaining this away" These type of events are not just tragedies but as we've seen could lead to much more. The killing of George Floyd was horrendous but the aftermath traumatized this city and led to destruction and injury, even a couple of deaths, of many others. Getting justice and accountability is vital to the stability of this country but justice and accountability isn't just that anytime an LEO kills a BIPOC that the LEO is in the wrong. That just leads to more misinformation and as we saw this past summer with riots based on false stories of LEO shootings lead to more damage. That is why we need to look very very carefully anytime something like this happens. We need to consider all of the facts including what the LEO are seeing and the immediacy of the situation before we condemn one side or the other.
Heh cop halts traffic because of groundhog. Gets intimidated by it crossing the street, and shoots it to death in front of all those cars. Not trying to equivocate the loss of animal life compared to human life in any way, but seriously what the **** kind of thoughts have gotta be going through your head to think this is the smart choice to make with an animal you easily have 150 lbs. on and could simply just walk the way out of it's way. It's just night and day difference in intelligence working here man. What a moron.
I'm saying it was understandable why he shot twice. You're asking for perfection out of what is a difficult situation. This isn't remotely close to George Floyd, Daunte Wright or even Rashard Brooks where Brooks was fleeing with an empty taser. This is an active situation with an armed suspect still holding the a firearm even as other LEO were struggling. In an instance like that lethal force can be used. Given how chaotic it is it is also very possible people other than the intended target get hurt. The alternative is if the threat isn't stopped what might happen if Thompson can still shoot.
That's assuming that the LEO didn't care about his fellow officers. We don't know what exactly was in his mind but training is to stop the threat and in the case of lethal threat that means use lethal force until the threat is stopped.
So you think the training is to ignore everything else and stop the threat? It's obvious he did not care about his fellow officers he shot two times and different points with his fellow officers in close proximity and actually shot his fellow officer. There is no training that tells you to stop a threat without considering the safety of others, why do you think they yell taser taser taser. If this was training why did no other cop pull their weapon at any time? So this cop was the only one following proper training?
