Does This Fatal Shooting Look Justified To You?

If you’ve been here for a while, you know that we share quite a few of the Active Self Protection videos that they put up on their YouTube channel. Many of the incidents are cut and dry, but this one doesn’t fit the typical mold in my mind.

Off the bat, we’re running with limited information here. If anything was said between the parties, we don’t know about it. With that…

The sum of this story is as follows: An argument was going on at a gas station between some people and an off-duty officer, when a woman and man get out of their vehicle and confront the off-duty officer. The woman approaches first, and the man follows. Quickly. He tries to deploy a flying kick, but the off-duty officer shoots twice, killing the man.

When the off-duty officer got out of his vehicle, he had his gun in his hand already.

Now, if he were the instigator and said “Back off or I’ll blow your head off” without that being warranted, he’d be in the wrong. What may have happened, however, is the man who exited the white vehicle had threatened the other man. “I’ll f’ing kill you,” and then charged at him. We just don’t know.

IF the off-duty officer were poking the bear, or escalating the situation, then he’s in the wrong. Again, we don’t have a clear picture of what was said or what really happened, so we can’t come to a definitive conclusion.

As for a flying kick to the gut, that can absolutely cause great bodily injury or death, so that’s important to keep in mind as well.

Thoughts?