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Hate to be the one to disagree here, but the replies above indicate some sort of thought pattern that an officer automatically wants to shoot in a situation.

Not so.... and I speak from experience. Stopped a DUI once that pulled a knife and stood before me in a threatening stance. I unholstered and trained my weapon on him. Even without the knife, he was about 6'3 and 250, I was not going to fare well in a physical confrontation with him anyway.

When he saw my weapon, he put the knife in his back pocket. I holstered and began talking with him. Just when I thought he was going to give the knife up, he got angry and pulled it out again. This cycle repeated itself three times.

Unknown to the DUI, a backup unit had arrived and another officer was walking up behind him. The next time he put the knife in his back pocket, the unseen officer blindsided him and we both wresteled him to the ground and into cuffs.

Could I have shot him ? Sure. Would I have been legally right ? Sure.

That was 20 years ago. This is a small town and I still see that man today. His son played on the high school football team with my son. I have also seen him with his grandkids. He is a real likeable fellow. Am I glad I didn't shoot him ? Yep. He just had a bad night and we encountered each other at the wrong place and the wrong time.

I still think about the family of the man I did shoot and kill when he shot at myself and a fellow officer. I regret that they have had to live without a husband, father and grandfather, but there was no other option in that situation. He shot first, missed and was training his weapon on another officer when I fired.

While some have posted above that they felt the officers acted wrong or put themselves in danger, my take after watching that same episode a few years back was that the officers were trying to do everything they could not to shoot the man.

The suspect could have been dead a half dozen times over, the officers showed restraint........ just like you would hope an officer would do if one of your loved ones ever had a bad moment.