I dunno. How could they know for sure that all the guy had was a knife? What if he had a gun and/or a bomb. If he's not being compliant about dropping the knife, how do they know he's not going to pull a gun next? They can't really go storming onto the streetcar if they don't know what other weapons the guy might have (or can they? I don't know the protocol at all).
That being said it didn't really seem like 9 shots were required. I don't know how much adrenaline plays into that though.
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