Robby said:
Crap, at 10 ft, guy with a knife.
If you do not have gun out, and ready to use it, your gonna get hurt the majority of the time. Unless you practice, practice the draw and point fire a lot.
That is more scary to me, than a wild man with a gun at church or the mall!! unless I am the first guy he shoots.
I had a very vivid demonstration of this when I was a (reserve) LEO:
My Captain pulled me aside one day (small town force), and said lets go do some training. We went to the police/volunteer fire garage, and unloaded our weapons (and double checked each others' unloaded weapons).
At this point, he had me holster my firearm, and grabbed a plastic garbage bag tie, and said, "this is a knife". He backed about twenty feet away, and we started talking. He said, "you need to draw and pull the trigger before I get to you." So I knew he "had a knife" and I knew he was going to come at me.
As we were chatting there, me with my hand on the butt of my weapon, he lunged. Before I could even clear leather, he "stabbed" me three times. What an eye-opener. We worked for a short time on techniques to defend myself (knock the knife away from me with my off hand while backing up and changing directions until I can clear leather, etc). By the end of it, I was able to move, clear leather, and "double tap" while avoiding the blade.
At 10' - the officer is dead unles they react quickly. And more food for thought - if the officer does NOT fire, and is killed or disabled - the perp now has the chance to get the officer's own weapon, and cause even further death and destruction to the officer or innocents.
I learned long ago that my job as a police officer was to go home at the end of my shift and kiss my wife. I couldn't do that dead or disabled. It is the possibility of an officer having his own gun used against him that drives that fact that an OC/pepper spray attack on an officer is legally considered a justification for lethal force.
Bad guy has knife and attacks officers - bad guy gets shot. I may feel for the perp, but IF the situation is as reported, bad guy goes down every time.