I obviously didn't hear and see all the evidence the jury did, but from what I have read and seen it seems to me like the officer was not justified in shooting him.
From what I can tell the incident happened like this. With no video from inside the car prior to the shooting, it's hard to tell what the driver was actually doing prior to being shot.
- officer sees the guy driving around, thinks he looks like a robbery suspect from a few days ago (doesn't really match the description of the robber or vehicle, other than being a black male)
- officer stops the guy for having a taillight out, fine reasonable cause
- during the stop, the driver mentions he has a firearm on him, driver has a license to carry
- the officer seems to panic at that point, tells the driver not to pull out his gun
- the driver says "I'm not reaching for it", he may have been reaching for his wallet
- officer shoots the driver
- driver says "I wasn't reaching for it" and dies
- driver's gun was still in his pocket the whole time
- driver had a bullet wound in his trigger finger, no corresponding wound in his leg where his gun was
From what I can tell the incident happened like this. With no video from inside the car prior to the shooting, it's hard to tell what the driver was actually doing prior to being shot.
- officer sees the guy driving around, thinks he looks like a robbery suspect from a few days ago (doesn't really match the description of the robber or vehicle, other than being a black male)
- officer stops the guy for having a taillight out, fine reasonable cause
- during the stop, the driver mentions he has a firearm on him, driver has a license to carry
- the officer seems to panic at that point, tells the driver not to pull out his gun
- the driver says "I'm not reaching for it", he may have been reaching for his wallet
- officer shoots the driver
- driver says "I wasn't reaching for it" and dies
- driver's gun was still in his pocket the whole time
- driver had a bullet wound in his trigger finger, no corresponding wound in his leg where his gun was