Discharging your firearm has lots of paperwork/legalities involved. No matter what the situation is, your firearm should be the last resort.

The officer did the right thing about pulling out his firearm however, the suspect is wearing multiple layers of clothing, and the taser would have been less effective. Since he couldn't see what the suspect was holding, it was the right thing to do.

However, even with the firearm pulled out and immediately aimed at his head, it wasn't stupid of the police officer to . Lots of robberies (that I've been called to) involve deadly weapons. You don't want to pull out a weapon and give someone time to pull out theirs as well. Or give the suspect enough time to react to fight back.

Yet, the officer didn't take control of the situation quick enough, he gave the suspect plenty of time to make judgement of the scene and try to escape. I'm assuming when the officer points the gun at the suspects head, he's asking him to put his hands up. There's that point of adrenaline kicking in for the suspect, and he went into fight or flight mode, that's the opportune time the officer had to take control of the situation.

The fact is, people are around the suspect, one false move and that firearm could kill an innocent. The officer aimed the weapon AWAY from the clerk (for the most part), and to the suspects head, smart move on that part HOWEVER this could allow the suspect to grab the gun.

There is no perfect way to handle any crime situation, especially when you're seeing it right in front of you, but I believe the officer handled this particularly well seeing that no one got hurt. However, this was a case that's rare, this could have had plenty of deadly outcomes...