[The bodycam video of the shooting starts at 5:23. Bystander videos start at 9:16.]
[Officer Toni] McBride’s decision-making will be broken down and analyzed, shot by shot. The LAPD’s use-of-force policy says the officer’s judgment will be assessed “from the perspective of a reasonable Los Angeles police officer with similar training and experience, in the same situation.”
An officer must reasonably believe he or she needed to use deadly force “to defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or to another person.”
[Daniel] Hernandez’s parents and 14-year-old daughter argue, through their attorneys, that McBride could have done more to deescalate the confrontation. She might, for example, have stepped behind a bystander’s car to buy time, they say. They contend that she responded like the competitive shooter seen on video, racing to get off shots.
“She loves to shoot all these things as fast as she can,” said Casillas, the lawyer for Hernandez’s family. “That certainly is in stark contrast to the measured, cautious police officer, exhibiting a reverence for life. This isn’t a movie.”
But Hanna, McBride’s lawyer, counters that the officer had little choice, faced off against an oncoming man with a weapon, who posed an imminent threat. He added that McBride worked hard to master all aspects of her training, including deescalation techniques, threat assessment and shooting skills.
“She had fear at all times and was shooting at somebody she felt was coming at her and … toward the other citizens who were out there,” Hanna said, calling arguments to the contrary “playing politics.”
– James Rainey and Andrew J. Campa in She was known as a ‘top shot.’ Now an L.A. cop is at the center of a deadly shooting
LAPD Officer Toni McBride on the range for some training with the one and only @TaranTactical. #AlwaysTraining pic.twitter.com/7TbVCuiuKO
— 5.11 Tactical (@511Tactical) September 17, 2019