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Comment by cryoshon | Hacker News Reader

imagine a man face down on the ground with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed in a narrow hallway. the man is sobbing in terror, and drunk. two cops are pointing assault weapons at the man and screaming at him from 20 feet down the hallway. eventually, they shoot him.

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Why do they shoot him? Did he move abruptly or something? What should I be doing if I find myself in a similar situation?

I can't bring myself to watch it either, but from other descriptions: the police order the man to crawl towards them (while simultaneously yelling at him to put his hands in the air). As he's crawling along the floor, his pants start sliding off. When he reaches down to pull up his pants, the police kill him.

People don't realise how natural a reaction this is also, if your pants are coming off it's muscle memory to grab them.

"Jurors in the Daniel Shaver case were not allowed to know that the police officer who shot him had scratched “you’re fucked” into his service weapon."

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/footage...

These cases are all pretty damn ridiculous, but do always seem to involve the victim doing something with the hands.

Goes without saying this shouldn't be happening, but makes me think as a member of the public, step one is just, keep your hands where they can see them. (Which isn't big news)

In hindsight, I think the only way he could have survived would have been to not move at all. The trigger-happy lunatic was going to shoot him the instant he made any "unexpected" motion, which was inevitable given the confusing and contradictory orders being shouted at him.

There's not a lot you can do.

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