With everything that's going on, simply firing your weapon is exposing yourself to the potential ruin of your life, your family's life, and the forfeiture of your freedom. He could have not fired the shots, and let the poor girl get stabbed to death and done nothing. Instead he chose to save that girl's life, and risk his life liberty and pursuit of happiness. He is a hero.
Also, I guess this goes into how you define a hero. I would not call Kyle Rittenhouse a hero for instance, despite the amount of danger he put himself in and was able to get out of. The reason Kyle Rittenhouse is not a hero, is because his actions were in the defense of himself and not in the defense of others. Sure his original intent may have been to defend a car park, but he was driven away from that mission long before the incident happened. Contrast this with the cop in this scenario, where he is risking much of his livelihood in order to save someone in imminent danger. I consider it heroic to put any amount of yourself at risk in order to help someone else, with no potential to personally gain from it.
With everything that's going on, simply firing your weapon is exposing yourself to the potential ruin of your life, your family's life, and the forfeiture of your freedom. He could have not fired the shots, and let the poor girl get stabbed to death and done nothing. Instead he chose to save that girl's life, and risk his life liberty and pursuit of happiness. He is a hero.
Also, I guess this goes into how you define a hero. I would not call Kyle Rittenhouse a hero for instance, despite the amount of danger he put himself in and was able to get out of. The reason Kyle Rittenhouse is not a hero, is because his actions were in the defense of himself and not in the defense of others. Sure his original intent may have been to defend a car park, but he was driven away from that mission long before the incident happened. Contrast this with the cop in this scenario, where he is risking much of his livelihood in order to save someone in imminent danger. I consider it heroic to put any amount of yourself at risk in order to help someone else, with no potential to personally gain from it.