This is just my take on the case and this (
http://videos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2012/12/security_video_of_beginning_of.html ) is the beginning of the entire mess. Sorry, no audio.
Important considerations
(American) Life rule: Shoot at the police and the odds of life threatening retaliation to protect public safety, their safety, and
possibly for emotional psychological reasons increase dramatically.
Vehicle malfunction: A backfire happens when too much air enters the fuel system, faulty spark plugs, bad catalytic converter, etc.--sometimes a typical symptom of old vehicles.
A backfire sounds exactly like a firearm discharging.
Human reality: The instinct to survive is powerful, sometimes to the point where it overrides all reason.
My narrative
A couple drives in a car (
1979 Chevrolet Malibu) that backfires.
A police officer stops his patrol car to visit someone and talks to him/her on the sidewalk.
The car passes by the police officer.
The car backfires at that exact moment.
The police officer
reacts to the sound of a gunshot fired in his immediate vicinity (e.g. startled).
He immediately believes he was the intended victim of a drive by shooting.
He jumps in his car and starts his pursuit of the shooter.
Within a few seconds, the driver of the car that backfires: a)
reacts to the car backfire (e.g. startled), b) notices the parked police car and possibly the police officer react at the same time, c) says, "****!", d) the flight instinct immediately took hold and he/she floored the gas pedal believing a police officer mistook the car backfiring as a gun discharging, and e) attempts escape from possible police action involving deadly force.
The police chase has commenced.
Police officers believe the suspect being chased attempted to shoot and kill a fellow officer.
The driver and/or couple believe they may be shot and/or killed if they voluntarily stop the vehicle.
Note: The old car continued to backfire throughout the pursuit and possibly even when the car has stopped and idling.
(Fast forward to the end)
The police chase, involving both the fleeing car and numerous pursuit law enforcement vehicles, has endangered public safety.
Additionally, an unknown number of police officers involved in the pursuit believe the suspect has shot at them.
The police officers believe there is only one way to resolve the situation. They shoot to kill. One police officer is so psychologically and emotionally motivated to end the situation that he jumps atop the vehicle despite being in another officer's line of fire:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3026549/Indicted-cop-recall-shooting-suspects-hood-car.html
---------------------
My opinion
The situation began with a backfire so the pursuit and lethal shooting wasn't racially motivated. The couple' fate was sealed not necessarily because they attempted to flee but because ther car made it appear that they were shooting at the police.
How can this same type of tragedy be averted in the future? There is zero possibility of removing all vehicles that backfire from being operated. And while better monitoring, screening, education, etc., may help lessen the deadly unprovoked shootings of unarmed suspects (or victims), especially racially motivated shootings, those factors will not prevent police officers from reacting instinctively to something that sounds exactly like gunfire.
