On October 12, 2017, Flagstaff, Arizona, resident Sean D Brady made a very poor decision. He pulled a gun and shot at police. That decision cost him his life.

Sean D Brady should win a Darwin award for his stupidity.

The confrontation started about 9:45 PM in a Walmart parking lot. Brady sat in his truck, loud music blaring from his stereo.

Walmart allows people to sleep in their parking lots, and some of those folks asked Brady to turn down his music so they could sleep. He refused. According to The Arizona Daily Sun, he also pulled a gun and threatened anyone who dared suggest he be more considerate of others.

Police responded to his location. Officers asked Brady to show his hands and stepped out of his vehicle. He refused. Instead of complying with the reasonable demands of police, he pulled his gun and shot at them.

The Daily Mail described it this way:

He [Brady] pulls a handgun and fires, and they respond in kind for eight brutal seconds.

You may think that’s a disproportionate response. I disagree. Here’s why. The good men and women of our police forces are trained to, when fired upon, shoot until the threat is stopped. That’s precisely what these three cops did.

Unsurprisingly, Brady was pronounced dead at the scene.

Some might say playing loud music should not result in a death sentence. Those people, intentionally or otherwise, miss the point completely. Brady wasn’t killed because he played loud music. He was killed because he chose to pull out his gun and shoot at police.

These officers rightly defended their lives from a man intent on doing them grave physical harm. These officers did not initiate the confrontation. They merely responded to the threat posed by this idiot and ended it.

It’s very simple. If you don’t want to be shot dead by police then don’t whip out your gun, point it at them and pull the trigger. That’s a recipe for disaster, most likely yours.

Don’t feel sorry for Sean Brady. That’s wasted energy. If you need to direct your empathy anywhere, direct it at the three police officers who, simply for doing their job, came under fire and were forced to defend their lives, albeit with lethal force.

The three police officers involved, Pat Condon, Dustin Hamp and Ryan Sharif, are now on administrative leave, standard practice for officer-involved shootings.