In the movie 'Tombstone' with Kurt Russell – in which the incomparable Russell plays legendary Wild West figure Wyatt Earp – he explains his law enforcement past to his younger brother Morgan, played by Bill Paxton. With regards to a shooting in some small western town, Earp says, 'all those years I worked those cow towns I was only mixed up in one shooting – just one – but a man lost his life, and I took it.' It was a moment of intense passion and revelation, and it showed the difference between the legend of Earp and the reality and lifelong effect of one singular event.
Keith Taylor was thinking of that scene in the movie – one of his favorites – in the aftermath of his lone officer-involved-shooting during his time with the state police.
He had responded to a mental health emergency
