I saw the video. I think the perp was trying to reach for his gun but with both holding him, it looked like an execution. I rhink here there was a lapse of judgment.
It looked like the officers were content to hold him down until they saw something on the man’s right hand side... Then the officers responded abruptly.
I've watched the video at least 5 times. You say the guy reached for his gun, with both arms pinned? I don't see that, and neither will any jury.
Possibly, but with just two police officers and a man fighting them, all it would take would be for him to get an arm free for a split second while an officer changes positions to try to cuff him or tase him, for example, and he could potentially grab either his own gun or one of theirs and shoot one or both of them, or land a good punch. Two officers should be able to subdue one man resisting arrest, but not necessarily. At this point not enough seems to be known about what happened.
I watched the video also. It is horrible. Something I noticed and wonder about is what was going on with the officer on top of Sterling. The view of him is mostly blocked by the officer who ended up shooting, but just after he says that Sterling has a gun, it appears like that officer is possibly struggling with Sterling. You can see his arms moving around, so it doesn’t seem he has Sterling under control and pinned at that moment, and possibly from what it looks like, he and Sterling were wrestling at that moment.
And we should note, too, that after the officer who shot reports that shots were fired, he does exclaim the “f” word. At this point it doesn’t seem like something he wanted to do and thought nothing of.
These cops weren’t just filmed by bystanders; they were wearing bodycams. I’m sure at least one of them thought his life was in danger; after all, they had initially been sent there to deal with an armed perp.