As Pax pointed out, we don't know what would have happened if he'd gone the other way, but it seems likely he would have lived. After all, everyone else in that Wal-Mart did.
Sure. He may have lived -- but then again, maybe everyone else in the WalMart lived because he got involved. Maybe.
We. Don't. Know.
Maybe, if he hadn't acted, someone's three-year-old would have been taken hostage and ultimately killed. Would he have been able to live with that, after? Would that have been the outcome?
We. Don't. Know.
Maybe, if he hadn't acted, he would have stayed alive, gone home safe to his family, no additional deaths and the bad guys taken into custody alive. Would that have been the outcome?
We. Don't. Know.
It's very easy to look at the road not taken and think we know where it goes. But the point is, the road not taken was
not taken. Which means we absolutely Do. Not. Know. where that road would have led, if someone had taken it.
There's no such thing as 20/20 hindsight.
Yes, it's horrible that a good and brave guy died. We want to construct a reality where he would be alive and the bad guys did absolutely nothing more to any other innocents. (We really want a reality where the officers lived, too.)
But that's not the reality we have. The reality we have is
this one, where Wilcox did what he did and then he died. Would he, himself, if he had it to do over, have done something else?
We. Don't. Know.
Maybe he thought it was worth the risk, counted the cost and accepted it in peace. Maybe his action did, in actual fact, save a hundred lives because the bad guys were going to torch the whole building or something.
We. Don't. Know.
Maybe he bitterly regretted it with his dying breath, and died for nothing.
We. Don't. Know.
It's human nature to make up stories about things like this. But we will absolutely
never know what would have happened in some other universe, on the road that wasn't taken.
pax