A cop shot a guy and claimed he tried to grab his gun. Too bad he forgot about the video cameras. He's under a portion of a $12.5 million judgement. I'm sure he'd appreciate any help you could give him.
Yeah, I'll bet your scenario would make excellent dash-cam video...
That was in a train station with high quality cameras everywhere. You sitting in your car are hidden from the view of most dash cams. On foot you will usually be outside of view. Even in view during a tense situation with a lot of movement someone in the situation may feel in danger. You can find several on camera shootings where if you pause the video it is a cell phone or another object, or they may have been reaching for thier wallet for ID (or even your CCW card.)
Look at almost any video of a cop pulling someone over, or shooting someone in a vehicle during a traffic stop. You cannot really see what the driver is doing, maybe some movement sometimes. You can often only see the officers' reaction, and must trust that he made the right call in the field, especially if there really is a firearm on the suspect or within reach.
If the suspect really did have a weapon, then it lends credibility to what the officer says put him in fear for his life.
Officers tend to stick together. It is a culture of having eachother's backs, where nobody but them understand what they go through, and all they got is eachother in a a job the public at large will criticize. All they have when things get tough is eachother. So there is often a code of silence. A "snitching" or unloyal officer may find themselves with slow backup when they need it most.
A culture where letting thier partner go down for something like an accident is something many won't let happen if there is any way to avoid it.
That is if they are decent, and only slightly...dishonest.
Police have a very tough job, and making mistakes in those situations happens. If they can spin the situation and stay out of prison and keep thier freedom, or lose everything and go to prison for an accident, which one do you think they choose? You can find many situations where they do a lot worse than lie over an accident.
I lived in some corrupt areas. I could tell you many stories of corruption where I lived.
I even remember the police used to regularly pick up enemy gang members from one neighborhood and force them out of the car in enemy neighborhoods where I once lived (bad area) before driving off. The results could be quite violent.
Or local punks that thought they were too slick, who found out they could never be too slick because even if were "too slick" to get caught, the police framed them to take them off the streets. "Finding" evidence like drugs they didn't really even have.
Reach in the car, pretend to be searching around with some palmed drugs and...viola look what officer clean up the streets found. Same thing during a pat down, look what fell from mr scumbag's clothing...
Other criminals would have actual drugs or weapons they really did have taken, with no arrest or official mention...Which is likely where the stuff to plant came from.
Some were known to even carry guns confiscated from other criminals to plant on anyone unarmed who was shot.
These are just minor examples, there was far worse, and it was common and normal.
This was before the Rampart Scandal made the news in areas of LA, and while that received a lot of news attention, I can assure you it was not even the tip of the iceberg.
Things just as bad or worse happened daily. If they wanted someone they couldn't pin a crime on, evidence was created. If they made a mistake, evidence was created. Not just at Rampart, but in several surrounding areas.
Today that area is not as bad, and I fortunately do not live near there, but there is others that are known for corruption today.
Chicago and a few other large PDs are known to be rather corrupt, not to mention some small towns that are not big enough to be noticed when they are corrupt.
Now I know those are extremes and many areas are not so bad.
However it is unlikely officers would allow themselves or thier partner to go down in that culture for an accident if there was any other way to paint the situation differently.
