Keep in mind that if he legitimately believed Jordan Davis had a gun and every intent to kill him with it, putting the car in reverse (and possibly having to start it if he'd turned it off), then backing up and driving off (and thus leaving his fiancee behind) would have left Davis ample opportunity to shoot him as he did so.
If he TRULY believed Davis was moments from shooting him, the only way to neutralize that possibility was to kill Davis first or create a situation where he would have no ability or desire to try using his firearm. Laying down suppressing fire until the truck was sufficiently distant from him may have seemed to him to be the only way to ensure that nobody in the truck would take a shot at him as they drove off.
If he truly believed Davis was pointing a gun at him with intent to shoot then reaching over to his glove compartment to get his own gun is riskier than driving away. I'm assuming his glove compartment wasn't already open. Davis would have had ample opportunity to shoot him while he did this and more motivation to do so. He'd have had much less motivation to shoot him while he's leaving.
I just don't see how one could think otherwise. And if he already had the gun because he already felt an elevated level of threat he should have already disengaged.
Incidentally, had Davis been armed and actually shot him while he went to get his gun I wonder what people would be arguing now.
For all he knows, all four of them have a rap sheet as long as his arm filled with violent crimes. He doesn't know that there is seemingly no weapon in the truck other than the small knife in Jordan Davis' pocket. For all he knows, every single one of them is packing.
Putting aside the rationality of this prejudice, why would he have only formed this opinion after he engaged them? If he thought they were dangerous because they were playing loud rap music he shouldn't have approached them.
But I'm really not sympathetic to whatever this man's prejudices may have been, nor do I think the court should be. I'm not doubting that there was an atmosphere of credible threat in Dunn's mind either, I do think he acted out of fear, but that alone isn't enough to justify what he did. Just imagine the kinds of paranoia some people have, and what happens if you give them license to act on it.
BTW, I don't buy this tripod theory. He'd have had to grab the tripod and unfold it (no way was it sitting unfolded in the car) and even after doing that I doubt he could very convincingly stretch one leg in isolation out of the car to look like a firearm. If you have a tripod I recommend trying this and getting back to us
