4 Officers Shot Dead By Snipers, 7 Wounded in Dallas Protest Against Police Violence

[Tiberius]

I'm sure we'll hear more details in the coming weeks. All I'd say is I think there's situations where there would be a justification to shoot someone you have on the ground. Bear in mind this guy was big, he was on his back (so he could see the officers), he was struggling, and he had a gun. If he were on his front, I would completely agree that the officers likely had no justification for shooting him, but you can do a lot more when you're on your back than you can when you're on your front.

So, de-escalation was not an option? They couldn't have tasered him? They couldn't have shot him in the leg to slow him down?

Lethal force is not the first and only option, yet too many people find it acceptable to shoot first and ask questions later.

The reports I've read say he was tasered. Some of them say he was tasered twice. He was still resisting arrest after that. The cop pulls a gun out and point it at him whilst he's struggling, and tells him not to move. Presumably, and in one of the other angles you can see Alton move his right arm, Alton did move, perhaps to grab his gun, perhaps to try and grab an officer's gun. That's when he got shot.

We'll know more when the official report comes out, but from what I can see in the videos, the cops did try to de-escalate the situation, but the guy was just too big, and was still struggling.

Edit: If you watch the original video again, whilst you don't see it (the camera is pointed towards the inside of the car), you hear two cracks, which I believe are the taser firing. After the cracks, the video resumes pointing at the altercation, and Alton is still standing upright and resisting. It doesn't look like he has been shot at this point.