which is given in all cases like this, and thought he needed to take it out to drop it. That was his fatal mistake if that's what happened. We will never know, none of us is reliably telepathic. That's the most sympathetic reading anyone could give after watching that video.

Bottom line is that he reached for his gun. As twitchy as the cops are these days, and especially when confronting heavily armed right wingers, reaching for anything can get you killed. Best policy is to get on the ground, hands on your head, and tell them which pocket contains what, letting them find it.

... When he already has his hands up. You tell him to lie down, cuff him, and THEN disarm him. He moved from the vehicle with his hands up to protect the occupants of the vehicle from the firefight (I suppose that was a fairly decent act). When he felt he was far enough away and had an officer confronting him, he went for his gun. He didn't see the officer behind him. There was no other reason for him to exit his vehicle and stride away from it with the purpose he exhibited.

It almost looked like he went spread eagled in the snow, then got up on his knees to reach for the gun. It's fairly far fetched but weirder things have been known to happen when everybody is running on coffee and adrenaline.

... but what I saw on the video seemed pretty straight forward. I didn't see him go down and get back up again - he just seemed to be struggling to walk through the snow bank.

But -if you want to surrender, don't get out of the vehicle until you're told to do so. If you want to surrender, don't stride away from the vehicle toward LEOs. If you want to surrender, keep your hands up and say "I surrender, I surrender" ... even if some inexperienced or adrenaline fueled cop says "drop your gun" (which I just seriously doubt). You don't just go reaching for your weapon when you're in a confrontation with the cops if you want to surrender! You do that because you're drawing in a gunfight. It's basic common sense.

And I think this guy thought he could out duel the cop in front of him. I'm not buying the suicide by cop crap. I think he had deluded himself into thinking he was some kind of reincarnation of Doc Holiday (to Bundy's Wyatt Earp), and he was gonna get him a huckleberry.

I'm never happy someone gets dead. But this man was a monumental idiot, and his wish to die rather than be captured was granted to him by his own actions.

a suspect repeatedly to "drop your gun" and "put your gun on the ground", to a suspect who was on their knees, with their empty hands over their head.

When the suspect complied with the officers request he was shot dead.

In court the officer testified that they did not recall giving the suspect those orders, even after hearing the recording of himself giving that order.

... I also remember a suspect being asked for his license and being shot as he reached into his glove box for his license.

But I still think the video tells the story that Finicum drew fire on himself. If more comes to light - like an audio, maybe? - I will rethink it. Until then, I'm thinking its a simple case of he fought the law and the law won.

and the 2nd time, partially turned towards the officer who fired the shot.

I watched the video dozens of times, over and over, esp. that bit.
In zoom.

Now if he had a gun in his hand, an order to drop it would make sense.

Once the vehicle is clear, officers and agents then check on LaVoy Finicum’s condition, though he appears to have been deceased from just seconds after being shot. It is later said that a 9mm pistol was recovered from the inside left pocket of Finicum’s coat.

I said that by all accounts, Finicum didn't have a gun in his hand. Thus an order to drop his weapon wouldn't have made sense as he had nothing in his hand to drop.

Oh well Lavoy, bad luck.

It's rubbish, of course, the dope reached for his gun. That would get him shot anywhere in the country and under most circumstances these days.

is my guess!

Once the vehicle is clear, officers and agents then check on LaVoy Finicum’s condition, though he appears to have been deceased from just seconds after being shot. It is later said that a 9mm pistol was recovered from the inside left pocket of Finicum’s coat.

He was reaching for his pocket constitution.

I hope that's still funny

He wanted to be unarmed (by that I mean holstered, not brandished weapon) while shot to try to incriminate the authorities in an unjustified shooting, furthering his martyrdom.
One point a little to his credit, I think when he exited the truck he might have been trying to get into a clear spot away from his mates. At some point before he took off from the first road block, he probably heard the others with him weren't in the mood for a shootout just then.

This is all speculation, of course.

The other theory is that he thought they wanted him to surrender his weapon so he was going to dump it on the ground. If so, poor Lavoy, not too bright I'd say. If it were any of us we'd have those hands very, very high the whole time.

I can't quite buy he wanted suicide by cop, maybe a bullet in the arm to show off.

they were very poor shots to miss that many times from so close.

that no one mentions that he nearly ran an officer down. The man dived out of the way.

LaVoy nearly *ran a man down trying to evade a road block*.

If that isn't probable cause that Finicum was prone to violence, then I guess I should punch somebody in the mouth then claim their jaw injured my fist.

It's ludicrous.

to get himself hit so that he could claim Finicum attacked him.

Sure, they teach you that strategy in cop school. Jump in front of a speeding car, so we can charge the perp!

My goodness. How detached from reality would you have to be to believe that cops purposefully attempt to get hit by cars?

Just wade through those awful comments under the OP article link.

but in the video, I think I saw the officer who was nearly run down got into the woods and then came out of the woods and shot RLF as he was reaching for his weapon.

If that is the case, the officer who shot RLF did so in self defense upon the second attempt on his life.