[WWhittle]

Really a bad deal from an officer who was probably a good officer that just made a very bad decision. He was 100% in the right all the way up to the point that he pulled the trigger. The only thing I can figure that was going through his mind was that he was climbing the use of force ladder. Verbal commands did not work, hands-on did not work, less than lethal did not work, so he moved to lethal force. The problem is that once he drew his weapon the guy was running away and he should have never fired. However, I think if he would have only fired once or twice it may have been a little easier to understand how it all played out. The fact that he stood in place and fired eight times is the part that will hang him. There's no way the murder charge will stick though. I don't think what happened meets the criteria for a murder charge. I wouldn't be surprised if it was reduced all the way down to involuntary manslaughter or less.