RIP Gator. Some aholes on Hunting BC site are making such stupid comments like "why didn't they use pepper spray or baton or tazer". Next time they are faced with a dangerous criminal who intends to kill or injure people let them decide what they would do. Just think Gator may have saved lives by delaying the actions of this criminal long enough for the officers to put a few rounds into him.
You know, the real answer to that question is of course "because he was a POS who needed more lead in his diet."
But what I always say to people I actually want to help understand things is this: if you think they should have "just disarmed" a guy with a knife instead of shooting them centre of mass, try this on for size:
You take any moderately athletic teenager, hand them one of those big jiffy markers or sharpies or whatever, put on your favourite outfit of nice clothes that you own, and offer that kid fifty bucks for every mark he can put on you before you can either pop him in the knee (or whatever you think is a safe extremity) with a paintball gun, or wrestle that magic marker away from him. When I was a teenager, I'd have gone up against a taser or pepper spray for fifty bucks a mark, too. But most people don't need that explained to them: they can picture how badly this would end for their nice pantsuit or tommy bahama shirt or whatever, and occasionally they even smarten up a little.
If you won't risk your clothes, don't ask anybody else to risk their lives.
Incidentally, I have done the magic marker thing (not with nice clothes but beater ones) with a training group that I have knocked around with a lot. Anybody who's never seen how messed up things go with a knife-wielding assailant should experience it. You end up with so much black paint on you, you could get elected Prime Minister.
