Trigger-happy? Another incident of police shooting without taking proper precaution.
70-year-old Vietnam veteran Bobby Canipe was stopped by a police officer in South Carolina for an expired tag as he returned from a day out to watch car racing. As Canipe got out of his truck and tried to grab his cane out of the bed of his pickup, the deputy Terrance Knox thought the man was reaching for a rifle and fired his gun at him several times, shooting him once in the stomach.
He later realized the man is unarmed and immediately tried to help Canipe after the shooting. Sheriff's spokesman Trent Faris said "It does appear at this time that Deputy Knox's actions were an appropriate response to what he reasonably believed to be an imminent threat to his life."
Canipe had undergone surgery for his gunshot wound and expected to survive. Knox is on leave until the investigation is over.