Ohio Police Officer Who Refused to Shoot Murder Suspect Despite Being In Grave Danger Being Hailed Hero [VIDEO]

Look.  I am very thankful that this situation was resolved without anyone getting hurt or killed.  But, this Ohio police officer had every justification to shoot a murder suspect after the suspect threatened to kill the officer, rushing him, forcing the officer to run backwards -- eventually falling...

This video is so disturbing for a variety of reasons.

In a world where we are critical of police officers for taking actions that, while perhaps are not the only actions that could be taken, are actions that are, in my opinion, sufficiently justified; we really have to analyze the actions by this officer.

Because here's how I see the difference in this scenario and the many others that we've been debating over the past year.

In most of the other situations, potentially violent suspects refuse to obey officers instructions, and the officer(s) choose to eliminate the threat to themselves and to other innocent people.

In this situation, a potentially violent suspect refuses to obey an officer's instructions, rushes the officer, tells the officer "shoot me," the officer falls, the suspect is standing over him --- this MURDER SUSPECT (who is starting to look guilty, by the way) is an immediate significant threat to the officer and to innocent people, but the officer fails to eliminate the threat to himself and other innocent people.

This is more concerning to me than any of the other recent police situations.

Imagine what would have happened if the officer had been hurt or killed, or if other innocent people were hurt or killed.  Oh...my...gosh.... the liability the department would face, the liability the city would face, not to mention, the potential clash of ideals online when all those people who chastised police officers for actions they took that resulted in the death of a criminal but saved the officer's life and possibly the lives of others, have to defend their position to people who lost innocent loved ones because an officer, afraid of the fallout of actually DOING HIS JOB, failed to take action.

So the question here isn't whether or not the officer demonstrated 'great restraint,' as the Chief of Police put it.  The question is did the officer do the right thing?

I won't presume to be able to answer that question because I don't know what was going on in the officer's mind.  But if what I imagine to be the case is the case, my friends, this is not good news.

Read the whole story on CNN.com.