re: Florida deputy fatally shot US airman that answered the door with a gun

I’ll say this.. I’ve been in a scenario where the cops banged on the door like that and I didn’t know who it was. In my case it was at like 3 AM and they woke me up. When they knock, they don’t knock like normal people… they bang. It’s a little disconcerting when you aren’t expecting it.

I had the same reaction.. I grabbed my pistol before walking toward the door. However I heard the cop’s radio and then figured out what was going on. I immediately went to put my pistol away before opening the door, for obvious reasons. In my case it turned out they were looking for a guy popping door handles and apparently my wife’s car door was open when they rode by. So they wanted to let me know and ask if I had seen anything (this was while BRPD still gave a shite).

My point is that I can understand why the guy grabbed his pistol the first time when the cop didn’t announce himself. I can also understand why he said “….police?…” before the cop announced himself as it’s kind of distinctive the way they bang on your door.