looking. I think the fact that I was an experienced officer
had a lot to do with my decision. I could see a lot of fear in
his face, which I also perceived in other situations, and that
led me to believe that if I would just give him just a little
bit more time that he might give me an option to not shoot
him. The bottom line was that I was looking at him,
looking at what was coming out of his pants leg, identifying
it as a gun, seeing where that muzzle was gonna go when it
came up. If his hand would’ve come out a little higher from
his waistband, if the gun had just cleared his stomach area
a little bit more, to where I would have seen that muzzle
walk my way, it would’ve been over with. But the barrel
never came up, and something in my mind just told me I
didn’t have to shoot yet.How long was this encounter? Two seconds? One and a half
seconds? But look at how the officer’s experience and skill
allowed him to stretch out that fraction of time, to slow the
situation down, to keep gathering information until the last
possible moment. He watches the gun come out. He sees the
pearly grip. He tracks the direction of the muzzle. He waits for