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Former FBI special agent weighs in on Stephon Clark shooting

Now a computer forensics expert for the VAND Group in Roseville, the former officer also is an attorney who has taught the use of police deadly force to other FBI agents in Washington, D.C.

Don Vilfer has 15 years experience with the FBI's SWAT and Violent Crimes Unit in Sacramento. He has also been part of an officer-involved shooting himself.

Now a computer forensics expert for the VAND Group in Roseville, the former officer also is an attorney who has taught the use of police deadly force to other FBI agents in Washington, D.C.

Q: "From your observation did his hands go up or not?"

Vilfer: "You really can't see from this video what he's doing with his hands, I don't think."

Q: "What does that tell you as an officer?

Vilfer: "Officers learn he is not going to be compliant. But, he knows they are there and he's running from them."

Q: "And although Clark was only holding a cell phone, in Vilfer's observation of the video, could have it been mistaken for a gun?

Vifer: "In the recording they apparently thought there was, again because they discuss a gun. They talk about not being able to see a gun anymore after he's down. So that's some clue as to what their perceptions were at the time."

Q: "Put yourself in the officers shoes, would you have done what they did?

Vilfer: "It's hard to say. I don't know all the facts. I don't know all what the officers were told. Ya know what they observed with their own eyes."

Q: "Why 20 shots? Are they trained to load and unload?"

Vilfer: "The officers aren't trained to unload their weapon and they're not trained to fire just one shot either. It's not like on TV where you shoot somebody once and they go down."

Bottom line: Vilfer says the Supreme Court says one has to take in the totality of the circumstances as seen by a reasonable police officer at the time.

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