I guess that is the risk of "good guys with guns". Step up ladies and gentlemen!

To many cops are shooting people first then asking questions. Three bullets in a person's back means MURDER. The FBI should take over this case and the shooters should be EXECUTED for murder. This is a southern state which has no means of justice for ANYONE........I avoid southern states because it is worst then going to a third world country!!!

I believe that there's absolutely an element of racism in many of these cases, but in this particular case, I think it has more to do with something that I don't have a name for.

My problem with these kinds of incidents is that Police Officers are held to lower standards than the rest of us. It seems to me, that with their many, many, hours of training, that they should be better at handling these sorts of situations than I would be (with my zero hours of training), and that the law would account for this. But they are actually held to a lower standard than my non-trained self.

If any of us 'mistakenly' shot a guy, because we assumed he was a bad guy....we'd be in prison. There wouldn't be a big debate..we'd take plea deal.. and go to prison. That's what would happen to people with ZERO training. Police Officers (hopefully) get tons of training..but when they shoot the wrong guy, ..it's "oops, they were justified..they were scared".

I don't think that Police Officers should be held to a lower standard than I am in these sorts of cases. I don't even think they should be held to the same standard that I am. I think they should be held to a higher standard.

The last time I saw any studies on this trained professionals aquire their target about 10% of the time based on the number of bullets fired. Real life is not Hollywood. This whole good guy with a gun nonsense needs to stop. I firmly believe that their is a lot of racism involved with police shootings, but to pull out your gun in a situation like this is asking to get your ass shot. The cops got a shooter, he's scared and pumped up and then he sees a guy with a gun. There is no time to think or ask questions. It's another example of how that "self defense" gun will get you killed. How could the cop know your intent?

The young man made a mistake that cost him his life.

So it was likely he did in fact intend to fire it in self defense if he encountered the shooter.

I'm referencing back to my own training which emphasized that one does not draw a gun in public unless you or someone near you is in immediate danger of death or severe injury and you have the target identified and intend to use your gun to kill the target. Otherwise, keep the gun holstered and flee the area or seek immediate cover or concealment.

He pulls his gun and goes toward the sound, and the police, also unaware of where the shooting is happening, assumed he was the shooter or one of the shooters. I'll have to agree with the other poster and this is something you don't really think about. But he may be alive if he kept his gun concealed as he went toward the danger (at the minimum the police would've told him to get out of there as they realized he was going toward it rather than running like everyone else).

but if shots are fired and in close proximity (time and place) a person is seen with a weapon it is not unreasonable to categorize him/her as a threat and act accordingly.

As some people have pointed out, this is the risk a "good guy with a gun" puts himself in when carrying (which, also, is why many defensive gun training emphasizes hunkering down in a defensive position rather than charging into a situation).