Looking at the beginning of the video, there was one bystander or family member that seemed to assist Jacob in some way before Jacob got up and quickly walked around the car. Two officers were a few feet away from Jacob when he got up. Jacob’s apparent resistance to arrest was not shown in the video. Jacob’s actions appeared to either be a flight response either implying consciousness of guilt, fear, or aggression as in Jacob attempting to get his gun to fight with. I am leaning towards conciousness of guilt because of the apparent assistance provided by the bystander and the seeming encouragement yelled by someone.
The officer did not shoot Jacob after he got up. The officer did not shoot Jacob as he quickly walked away and turned the corner of the car. The officer did not shoot Jacob when he first went into the car. In fact, just before the officer finally shot Jacob, the officer grabbed Jacob’s shirt in an apparent attempt to keep Jacob from going further. The officer put himself at risk for waiting as long as he did to shoot. After quickly firing a few rounds into Jacob, it appeared Jacob moved, triggering further shots from the officer. The officer stopped shooting when the suspect stopped resisting. Harsh sounding, but under the circumstances, reasonable. This is is justified shooting in my opinion because Jacob was not responding to officers and was reaching into the car, presumably his own, for unknown purposes, putting the officers at risk. The officers were told beforehand the suspect had a gun, apparently.
A couple of areas of concern appeared at the beginning of the video with officer conduct. It appeared as though the officers did not take control of the situation. Why was another party allowed to be near the suspect? The other issue was why was Jacob not immediately restrained? These are logically fundamental parts of securing the area and the suspect. Did these officers second guess themselves over fears of doing something wrong that could cause riots, administrative penalties, or worse? Or was it a lack of proper training? One thing is for certain, if Jacob was properly restrained at the beginning, his shooting could have been avoided.
Then again, if Jacob followed the officer’s instructions, the shooting would have never happened.
After all the highly publicized unjustifiable and justifiable police officer involved shootings, it seems there are still people looking for Darwin awards by not following the reasonable orders of law enforcement. Pattern recognition time: If an officer tells you to do something, do it immediately. If the officer is an asshole, report him, and move on with your life.