"The issue people seem to be emphasizing is that the driver drove at the cop. First, because based on the crime (stealing diapers), we have no reason to think these people are murderers. Moreover, there have been many high-profile cases in which an officer’s defense for using deadly force was later proven to be false (e.g., Laquan MacDonald, Walter Scott—two in recent memory that resulted in murder convictions for the officers). Combine this with the fact that the news story from MS Today reads that the driver 'drove in the officers direction' and 'almost hit one'.
Perhaps bodycam footage will tell a different story, but as yet, we have a car driving recklessly toward a person, who may have been in a vehicle (the story says this happened in pursuit). Just last week, a group of frat boys were spinning out and hollering coming toward me. I had my sidearm on me, and for a second I thought they *were* coming at me. I got out of the way. Turns out they were just doing donuts and being idiots. If I had shot them, God knows id have been locked up. And I think rightfully so. Should they have been driving like that? No. And if I’d shot at them rather than just getting out of the way, I could say 'don’t break the law', but realistically, it’s an overreaction that makes a bad situation worse.
Why did they have a kid with them? Childcare is prohibitively expensive, so perhaps they couldn’t afford it. They seemed unable to afford diapers.
This is a situation in which shooting could have been avoided and it wasn’t. And a child died. The people breaking the law were stealing diapers from a trillion-dollar company."
( via apersonwithdreams on reddit )