1. Yea, Kern should not be keeping his badge near his gun.
2. He probably forgot his usual line of "I'm a Deputy Sheriff." Or it was just ignored and considered the 'ranting gibberish of another armed citizen'.
3. More importantly, why was he still carrying a gun while (supposedly - if its true) intoxicated? Even though it may be legal for him to do that its really, really stupid in my personal opinion.
4. Dark at the scene? Cops and their cars have more lights on them then I own. Why was it still dark?
5. Witness - claims - seven or eight shots, Kern was hit three times...what the hell happened to the other four or five? I am going to assume the officer wasn't running towards Kern when he shot him...3 times...so if he wound up six feet away, and then close enough to nudge him while he was lying in a fetal position, he was pretty damn close.
6. Officers policy seems to be "Shoot first, Cover Your Ass Later." For myself, there has to be immediate, otherwise unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm to innocent people before I even start a draw. And thats not pulling a trigger, thats a draw.
7. Police need to be held equally responsible for their actions as we are held to ours. When the life of a citizen is lost, there are no favors, there are no exceptions, there are no excuses. He was alive, and because of your actions he is dead. Almost as though police are paid hit-men now. Shooting incident=money without going to work.