Originally Posted by InsideWaist

Armchair quarterbacking here ...

What if the officer missed the target and the bullet hit someone in the house (or front yard) next door? They could have easily talked him into giving up. There were two officers on different sides of the bad guy. The officer shot while he was under cover behind his squad car. In fact, all he did was get behind his car, turned toward the bad guy, and immediately shot him. It didn't seem like he looked around to access what, exactly, was happening, nor to communicate with his partner.

For an opposing view, the office ran like hell toward his squad car, got behind it, and immediately shot the bad guy. For all he knows, he could have thought his partner had been attacked (shot, stabbed, etc), so he probably thought that was enough to simply turn and shoot.

It could go either way in a civil case.