The clerk did not escalate things... he matched what the bad guy brought.
From the looks of it, the clerk did hesitate - though it's almost guarenteed this is the first time he ever hat to draw on someone for real. That is a huge mental jump to hurdle.
If he had fired from the left side of the other clerk he would have endangered the child even more.
Had he pushed the clerk down and away, he would have tipped his hand sooner and given the scum more of a chance to get the first shot off.
The fastest way to get the most clear shot (given everyones position and furnishings) was to move around behind the other clerk. There wasn't another location for the clerk to protect everyone else which would have been better. He moved to get a clear line between him and the scum - away from the kid. The mom should have grabbed the kid and dropped back to the ground... though these things happen so fast.
Once the scum had drawn and from the sounds of it, racked a round, she should have grabbed the kid and faded back to try to get out of the scums line of sight... even dropping to the ground would have been better than just standing there.
Drawing from behind the other clerk allowed him to get the first shot and promptly caught the scum off-guard.
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