She was too far to reach, she was bigger than he was, she had a knife, he had fractions of a second left before the target could receive a serious injury (indeed, the girl in pink seemingly would have received a serious injury if she hadn't blocked Ma'Khia's knife arm)...and he already had his gun out because that's really the only tool we give police and really expect them to use because, I don't know, we love guns? (Yes, batons, yes, tasers sometimes--but the default is to go to the gun.)

It's not too hard to find the bodycam video. It's heartbreaking to watch someone die, though, at least for me. I wouldn't recommend it. But sometimes an accurate knowledge of the scenario is more important.

In Japan, this likely wouldn't have happened. The police are all extensively trained in martial arts, would typically use a baton, and would be expecting to intervene physically if needed. Girl in pink might have gotten cut, but Ma'Khia would have been disabled. But Japanese police do carry guns, and they will shoot knife-wielders if they're not confident they can safely master the situation.

In the U.K., this also likely wouldn't have happened. Less extensive training than in Japan, but they're unarmed by default...so very likely the officer would have had no choice but to try. Because of the U.K. culture, also, the police are much more likely to matter-of-factly deal with a situation like that, get cut up, need stitches, and if praised, say, "Just doing my job." In the U.S., it seems like if there's any danger to body, escalation of force until there's not is the default.

But the critical factor here is: is the officer sufficiently well trained to with high confidence disable a knife-wielding attacker using a baton (or other measure)? In Japan, many are. Here's an account of disabling a knife-wielder, albeit by two officers: https://soranews24.com/2021/07/13/japanese-police-take-down-knife-wielding-man-at-train-station-without-using-lethal-force%E3%80%90video%E3%80%91/

In the U.S., if most officers tried to do this with the training they had, a lot would end up stabbed or killed. For instance, in this case an officer had to flee from a person with a machete until the machete-wielder was shot: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-cop-stabbed-brooklyn-suspect-shot-coney-island-20220505-x766fyfi2jhdrl2ezzzlkxue7q-story.html