In the meantime - does anyone know what the most common SOP is for LEOs to stop BGs if their Tazers fail? Da they wrassle em to the ground - deliver knee strikes, pull their psitol and command them to get down on the ground? What?
Usually hands on, wrestling, basically. They cannot shoot any fleeing suspect except for a fleeing felon that they believe has the capacity/intent to harm others, etc. Petty theft doesn't really fit that bill. So pulling their pistol at that point would be useless because if the suspect continued to flee they would just have to re holster and keep chasing. Police generally LOVE tasers. It saves them from having to go hands on, a situation which has turned ugly for many officers.
Batons/Nightsticks last I heard have actually been considered lethal force and rarely get used anymore. While they could be used against a suspect with some sort of blunt weapon or knife, I guess most cops would rather just draw their firearm at that point.
OC spray may not have been the worst idea, but the suspect had his back to the officer for the majority of the time before the gunshots, and no matter what, when you spray a suspect and your the only officer around, your gonna end up with it all over you too.
Not condemning officer Reston's actions at all, but it may very well just have been a faulty cartridge in the taser. Removal of this cartridge would have taken 2 or 3 seconds (maybe enough time for the suspect to get away though) effectively turning the taser in a stun-gun. While not nearly as effective as when the prongs are distanced, it still may have easily taken the suspect to the ground in seconds. Tasers a very audible, so a quick trigger pull after the cartridge had been removed would have confirmed that it was once again operational.
If any LEO finds any of this info to be invalid, please let me know. Its been quite a while since I brushed up on this stuff and I could be a little rusty.