Shouldn't have brought a knife to a gun fight...

The new Orleans police are in the headlines, again. This time, though, it's not for excessive beating, but because they shot and killed a man who was wielding a knife and making threats.

From what I've read, the police talked with this guy for several minutes, pepper sprayed him (to no effect), talked some more, and then shot. Now, obviously this story is getting played up more by the media due to the city's recent problems with their men and women in blue, but where is the room for outrage or even reasonable doubt. From the article:

Trey Brokaw, a patron at a nearby bar, said he saw the victim with a knife in his hand shortly before the shooting. "I didn't see anyone near him," Brokaw said. "It didn't seem like anyone was going to get hurt to me." But Brokaw said he did not see what happened in the final moments before the shots rang out.

Now my brother is a reporter, and maybe he can stop by and clarify this one for me, but why on earth is this guy even mentioned? What qualifications does he have for making the statement that he didn't think anybody's life was in jeopardy? Just how close do you need to be to a guy who is holding a knife, disobeying police orders to drop it, making threats, and wiping away pepper spray with a towel?

To the paper's credit, they did quote a defense lawyer that was giving some praise to the cops, saying they used "great restraint" on a man that was "out of control and aggressive." Sounds justifiable to me. Good job!

Sidebar: for those reading this that it applies to, consider this evidence against the idea of pepper spray. Sure, the police were far enough back that they didn't have to administer it at arm's length, but it did diddly-squat to stop this guy.