Police do face in every encounter the possibility it could lead to deadly force. Even in routine traffic stops, danger exists.
Seattle Times reports a single policeman - single civilian encounter in a Starbucks lot ending with a dead police officer, a chase, and a suspect in custody.
Reporting is that the policeman investigated "suspicious activity." Present release of information does not enlarge upon what was suspicious, nor whether the police officer had an activated body cam which would shed light upon details.
However the story unfolds, the neighborhood in which I live includes a retired police officer and wife, about my age, whose children are now adult and on their own.
The man had a career with several policing jurisdictions, last with the BCA. Every day the worse might have happened. This is a very level-headed individual, in no way a hot head or one who'd be expected to run on adrenaline into error while he daily pursued his career. It would have been tragic to have this neighbor denied a retired life from a single encounter gone wrong.
The couple is lucky to have not been victim to the random bad incident. Knowing no detail of the man's policing history, I expect he had a career without any complaint against him, certainly not any valid complaint.
While it seems handguns are more a threat in police-civilian encounters today, than the majority of the time the neighbor served, every day could have been a last day.
The fact might be that encounters leading to a shooting now might more likely be reported in detail in media than years ago, while the threat level is no different. Given the current reported level the guess here is that citizens were better behaved in the past, even after the King assassination or the Rodney King aftermath.
Having to cut some slack, to allow a presumption of regularity when police handgun use happens is a reality. The edge we all have now is body-cams, where every time a police officer interacts with a civilian the cams should be activated to document all factual circumstances as best as feasible.
In any event, the neighbor survived to retirement from policing, and we in the neighborhood are grateful of that, and have gratitude that the man stepped up to do a dangerous job from which many others would shy away.
In being critical of reported excessive police conduct in protest situations (where police are outnumbered) it is always worth remembering many neighborhoods have retired veteran officers who are exemplary people, and sound, respected neighbors.
Each is worth reflection, to avoid being overly critical or overly ideological.
At a guess the neighbor was trained to shoot if having to defend himself or a public member, and to not be hesitant when the need to act promptly and effectively arose.
Knowing the man, the belief is solid that his judgment would have been correct whenever he was called to react quickly in self defense. Whether during his career he faced such a need once or more frequently, there is gratitude he did the job.
And survived to retire.