The events surrounding the death of Alfred Olango at the hands of El Cajon (CA) Police may be one of the best cautionary tales against jumping to conclusions that we’ve ever brought you.

The initial reports verged on monstrous.

We heard that the man’s sister called police for help because her brother was having a mental health crisis. When El Cajon officers approached the man, the had a brief interaction and then shots rang out. He fell. Eyewitnesses said that he had his hands out out his side when he was shot.

A crowd began to build, chanting “hands up, don’t shoot,” before EMS could perform preliminary life-saving measures and drive him away in an ambulance.

And then the truth began to come out

An employee of the restaurant filmed the confrontation between the man and officers in the restaurant parking lot. She had what appears to be not only an unobstructed view of the encounter, but from a very useful angle, as they captured the events from the behind the officers looking at the erratic man, giving us an idea of what the El Cajon officers saw.

It was from her camera and this angle that we saw what Alfred Olango did that caused officers to open fire simultaneously.

The image above of Alfred Olango pulling an object from his pocket and pressing out in an Isosceles shooting stance will get you shot.

Every.

Freaking.

Time.

The officer’s decision to fire five rounds in the fact of such a threat—an act of self-defense that would have taken less than two seconds—is entirely reasonable under the circumstances. Whether Olango is later found to be carrying a gun, a book, cell phone, or chocolate bar is utterly irrelevant. Officers are rightfully trained to fire on the actions of a suspect, not the identification of an object. As legal expert and Law of Self Defense author Andrew Branca noted earlier today here at Bearing Arms, officers do not have to wait until they clearly identify a gun being pointed at them, discharging rounds, before they open fire. To do so would be suicidal.

The screen capture evidence pulled from the video shot by a restaurant employee that shows Olango acting as if he’s drawing a gun and pointing it at officers shreds claims by “eyewitnesses” who stated that Olango had his hands out to his side when he was shot.

Other photos taken by bystanders just after the shooting showed what Olango pointed at officers.

El Cajon investigators later told us that silver, barrel-shaped object was a vaping device.

Police have revealed that it was a vape smoking device that a ‘mentally ill’ black man pointed at cops before he was shot and killed in a suburb of San Diego on Tuesday.

Alfred Olango, 38, was shot and killed by police just a minute after they arrived at a strip mall in El Cajon to investigate a report of a mentally unstable man walking in and out of traffic on Tuesday.

Police have said Olango refused to comply with instructions to remove a hand from his pants pocket, paced back and forth, then rapidly drew an object from the pocket, placed both hands together and extended them in a ‘shooting stance.’

Police had only previously revealed that Olango pointed something that was not a weapon at the officers.

Now, the El Cajon police department have said the object was a silver vaping device, a Smok TFV4 MINI, about three inches long and an inch in diameter.

El Cajon Police Department spokesman Lt. Rob Ransweiler said that Olango also held the vape’s box in his grip.

When you point an object colored and shaped like a gun barrel at law enforcement officers in a shooting stance, they’re going to open fire on you 95 times out of 100. They’re trained to shoot on the drawing motion you make, and the presence of an item in your hand that looks like a gun barrel is going to ensure that they keep shooting until you stop pointing it at them, however many shots that takes.

Why would Alfred Olango act so erratically, then draw an object and point it at police officers, knowing how they must respond? The rather obvious answer is that this illegal alien had decided that he wanted to be shot by officers, an act of desperation known as suicide by cop.

But what would drive Olango to the point of wanting to end his life? Sadly, Mr. Olango’s best friend had just died, and apparently no longer wanted to live.

The unarmed black man shot by police in a San Diego suburb had a history of run-ins with authorities and was distraught over the recent death of his best friend.

Alfred Olango was having an emotional breakdown over his friend’s death when police confronted him, said attorney Dan Gilleon, who represents the Ugandan refugee’s family.

Olango was shot several times after refusing to obey police commands and drawing an object from his pants pocket and pointing it at an officer in a “shooting position,” police said. Officers later said the item was an electronic cigarette, or vaping, device.

I feel a great deal of sympathy for Mr. Olango’s family. They have lost a father, a brother, and a friend.

But as this story has developed, it is now clear that in his great anguish Mr. Olango committed one of the greatest sins of all: he put another man in the position where he thought he was about to die, and he forced that officer to kill.