I do get what you're saying, but I still don't see it the same way. A cop obviously
should be able to unquestionably tell the difference between gun and taser. However, with the new gun-like tasers, there have been several well-publicized incidents of cops pulling their guns when they thought they'd drawn their tasers. And, if you think about it, you only find out that the cop drew the wrong one if they pull the trigger. That suggests that it happens far more often than is reported. And, frankly, as soon as Taser came out with the gun-like models, it's exactly what lots of people said would happen, because it's obvious that it would.
I do think cops should be held to higher standards in many ways and cut some slack in other ways. But in this case, I don't believe the defense's story that he meant to draw and fire his taser. Like I said, he still would've had WAY too good a chance of hitting his partner. I think he probably meant to draw his gun; I just don't believe for a second that he intended to fire.
There's still a huge issue of negligence / inability to properly use the firearm / training failure there. But it wouldn't change the likelihood that this was an accidental shooting. Cops are required to carry and use firearms, so the fact that he had a gun isn't his fault. The fact that he drew it is, I believe, a problem of training and police culture and procedure as much as his personal error. Drawing the gun was a bad decision, although I can imagine ways to rationalize it pretty convincingly, depending on factors of the situation (by-standers, for instance) that I don't have any way of knowing.
But actually firing the gun, I'm still convinced, was not a mistake of judgment but a physical error. He could have just as easily have shot his partner in the knee (or worse), and nothing I've heard so far has even suggested that this guy was that stupid or reckless or hated his partner or etc.
Two years for an accidental shooting death, in general, seems short. Two years for a cop accidentally shooting a suspect in the course of duty . . . . If I do believe it was an accident, then I don't think that's a short sentence. No one else who was there had any business getting involved or carrying a handgun. It's the cops' job to get involved
and have guns. If some random by-stander had walked up and accidentally shot the guy on the ground, forget it.
But that's just how I see it.
