Recent shooting in my city took exactly 3 shots in self defense - one in the air, one in the legs of an attacker and the third was a ricochet to the head
Could it have actually been two misses (one a lucky ricochet) and one that just happened to hit the legs? Hard to imagine a guy being attacked, let alone by three assailants, would have the time to make the deliberate decisions you said occurred.
One practice drill is to take a handgun, stand 10 feet or less from a combat sihouette target, and attempt draw from concealment and fire two shots onto the target inside of
two seconds. WARNING, one should BE SURE their feet are out of the way and that the gun is pointed downrange when the trigger is pulled, one had better try this drill with an empty gun several times first.
Now imagine doing that when you are facing imminent death, remember, you have two seconds to react.
Mike