Why I think officer who killed Sonya Massey is guilty of murder.

There is one important thing that a great deal of people aren't talking about in regard to the killing of Sonya Massey, which is really the key factor of why I believe that the officer is guilty of murder.

I don't deny that a pot of boiling water can be a serious threat. Having boiling water thrown on you can seriously fuck you up for the rest of your life. Despite what some radical leftists believe about self-defense, the element of "proportionality" doesn't mean that a defender can only use the same weapon as the aggressor. It does, and should, apply to citizens and cops alike that a threat of death or serious bodily injury can be met with deadly defensive force. That's one of the reasons why Rittenhouse was acquitted in the killing of Huber when Huber was trying to bash Rittenhouse's head in with a skateboard.

Still, the Rittenhouse case has another important point of comparison. That's the engagement with Gaige Grosskreutz. There was a moment prior to Rittenhouse pulling the trigger where it looked as if Grosskreutz was having second thoughts. Grosskreutz had his own gun out while approaching Rittenhouse when Rittenhouse was on his back. Rittenhouse hadn't fired. Grosskreutz briefly withdrew. It wasn't until Grosskreutz decided to continue the threat and aim his gun at Rittenhouse that Rittenhouse fired.

I got a lot of flack from the "Hang Kyle!" crowd for pointing that out, and said that Rittenhouse showing that discipline isn't consistent with the behavior of a murderer. But, what's more, if Grosskreutz had made the smart decision and withdrawn, and Rittenhouse had still fired, I would have been arguing that Rittenhouse could easily be guilty of inflicting the injury on Grosskreutz. Even if you were entirely justified in pulling your gun to stop a legitimate threat, the moment that that person says "sorry" and disengages, your finger has to be off the trigger -- otherwise, it's murder.

If people were willing to acknowledge that bit about the Rittenhouse case, the killing of Sonya Massey becomes a lot clearer.

There are still lingering questions about why the officers were in her home to begin with. There's a massive problem with the fact that the officer who fired the shots didn't have his bodycam on prior to the shooting. That's all short of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. That's all speculative. It's also not helpful to downplay the threat of the boiling water.

What is abundantly clear was that the moment the officer unholstered his gun and pointed it in Massey's direction, she said, "I'm sorry!" and dropped to the ground. The officer didn't start shooting until she made a clear attempt to withdraw.

I am saying this for anybody to read at any point, as a person who carries a gun. If there's ever a video in which a guy pulls a knife on me, and I pull my gun, and the dude says, "Sorry." and drops the knife, and I still fire, I'm aware that I'm probably going to prison for the rest of my life.

That's the standard that all of us are held to if we're going to claim self-defense. It can be a split second that separates lawful and justifiable self-defense from a revenge killing.

If nothing else, it's a bit of a noodle-scratcher that a then-seventeen-year-old showed so much more restraint and trigger discipline in response to an attacker who had a gun, than this officer did when facing a woman with boiling water while there was a counter separating them.