Berkeley (MO) officials: Man killed by police had pointed gun at officer

[cynzke]

17. There doesn't have to be a weapon.

Just the perception of one. The video shows the kid extending his arm similar to the simulation of someone holding a firearm. At those moments if the cop believes the suspect's motions mimic a pending assault against the officer, the law sides with the officer in use of lethal force, gives them a legal life preserver. If the cop reasonably believes in the moments before, that his/her life was in danger, he/she allowed to defend his/her self. Nowhere in the law does it state that a cop has to second guess what the intentions of the suspect are or does the officer have to wait to see a weapon. A delay, hesitation could prove fatal. Some hand guns are small enough to fit in your palm and in the poor lighting it would be hard to ascertain whether the suspect was holding a knife, gun or cell phone. So afterwards, should the officer be wrong about there being a weapon, the law does allow for mistakes, given the situation of having to make a split decision. In this case there were witnesses, there is video that the suspect did make some movement that the officer responded to. The order of that does suggest the officer's direct response related to the suspects response. Having the camera's may be suspicious and the cop may have violated the department protocol, there is plenty of remaining evidence that still supports the cops version of "self-defense" and the
DA would have to prove that the cop deliberately left the cameras off to intentionally kill someone. Pretty hard to prove in this case given all the other evidence.