look to me it's this simple- the cop is the professional here. the cop is the one who is on his job and needs to be on his game. i don't think there's a single person here who isn't critical of the driver's actions, but at the same time we absolutely should not hold the random crazy pedestrian and the on-duty professional to the same standards in a situation like this. the professional in this scenario (a guy with backup, body armor, lethal and non-lethal weapons, and two perfectly functioning legs) made two mistakes here that simply can't be overlooked or absolved:
1)he put himself in front of the car. how anyone can act like this isn't an insane and out-of-protocol thing for him to do is beyond me.
2)he fired his weapon when he just as easily could have corrected his first big mistake by stepping out of the way of the slowly moving vehicle that he had inexplicably put himself in front of.
If we're going to "back the blue", and treat these guys like the heroes they claim to be, then we need to hold them to a heroic standard. what this cop did was stupid and reckless, and it only escalated the situation 100x over in the blink of an eye, and now someone is dead and at least one other person likely has severe trauma that will stay with them forever. there's no justifying any of that. this could have and should have been avoided.