Video shows cop shoot without warning at man firing into air

[PTWB]

184. There was an imminent threat.

And police do shoot drivers, drunk or otherwise, when their actions create an imminent threat. The police shot at the Waukesha driver as he was barreling along the parade route, to use a recent example.

Would they have been justified shooting at the same driver going along a country road with no one around? No, certainly not. But by driving recklessly through a densely populated area, they’re creating an imminent risk of death or serious injury. And the police officer shooting at that driver was justified in doing so.

Similarly, if the decedent in this case had been firing into the air while out in the country, deep in a rural area with a very low population density, you’d have an argument that he wasn’t creating an imminent danger. But this wasn’t put in the country. This was in the middle of a densely populated city.