An Ohio police officer found himself confronted by a man with a knife.  He survived because he did everything right.  The bad guy survived because the Cop did everything right and could afford to give way without giving anything up.  As is usual, the armchair quarter backs wonder.

The officer had no way of knowing that the individual he had just stopped was a murder suspect or that he had brought a Knife to a Gunfight.  The officer was equipped with a body cam, so we get the entire encounter. 

Notice in the opening of the conversation the suspect stumbles over his name and how to spell his last name.  He was vague about where he came from, how he got there and where he was going. 

My judgment is the officer knew because of these answers there was a high probability that this contact was going to degenerate into a confrontation. Relieving him of the backpack gave the suspect increased mobility but also removed a potential weapon. The announced intent to frisk was another tactic, there was sufficient space between them that if the suspect was going to react in a negative fashion, the officer would have time to react.  The officer got the negative reaction, now it was just a question who could come on target first. The officer won and from a distance of approximately five feet drew and fired one round, hitting the suspect one time in “center mass” the abdomen. He then backed away creating more space and more reaction time.  The officer was also ahead of the game in that he was facing traffic.  He knew that traffic in the right lane had stopped, giving him additional space.  A bullet in the guts tends to slow a person down. While the suspect continued to be verbally aggressive he was not as physically aggressive.

The officer demonstrated great situational awareness, in that, he turned the confrontation around.  He headed first for the median which placed a hill behind the suspect as a solid backdrop, should he have to shoot again.  He then turned again backing up towards the stopped traffic again causing the suspect to follow and now the backdrop was empty Interstate, instead of the traffic jam.  

Now the officer was content to issue commands and await backup.  The arrival of the officer with the taser was timely.  A comment the officer made, indicated to me that he intended to fire again prior to the suspect reaching the parked vehicles.  This would have been entirely appropriate because of the threat to bystanders.

This isn’t Hollywood, the intent is not to match force with force, but to overcome force with superior force.  The suspect deploys a knife the officer has the following options:

a. Point out that that behavior is socially unacceptable

b. Taser

c. Shoot

d. park a patrol car on his chest. 

C and D are correct answers, although there will be hell to pay if the officer dented the patrol car.

Once the officer has sufficient back up then it is acceptable to try alternative methods, taser, dog, rubber bullets, or flash bang.