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I'm not defending the cop, but if you listen at the end of the video you can hear him say that he told the guy multiple times to put the knife down, that he didn't listen and he turned it towards him.
Since we can't see it, we have no idea exactly what that means. We don't know how far away the guy was nor how he responded.
I am assuming since they ruled the shooting unjustified witnesses must have said that the guy wasn't acting in a threatening way, but none of us were there and you can't see how it went down on the video.
Sadly, there are bad cops out there. There are cops out there who shouldn't be cops and there are cops out there who are scared on the job and that fear leads them to do things they shouldn't do. This is the way I look at it. If a cop tells me to put down the knife, I'm going to put down the knife. I would rather live to fight for my rights another day than die because a guy is overstimulated and shoots me for no reason. What is unfortunate for all of us is that it is very hard to determine what cops will act like this in the heat of the moment and those that won't. It is sadly one of those things that you don't learn until it is too late.
One other thing. If you are walking down the street with a knife in your hand, legal knife or not, there is a pretty good chance you are going to draw attention to yourself. I'm not saying the guy deserved to die, he didn't, but he did put himself in a position where he could be in danger.
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