A friend of mine was walking from Wal-Mart and was almost shot by police.

Its not.

Case closed

What if he didn't have ID, poor guy. I walk around a lot without ID, I thought about this today, I only carry it when I'm in my car.

Our streets aren't safe to walk anymore with killer cops running amok everywhere.

Officers can't stop you unless they have reasonable suspicion you have or are about to commit a crime. First should be sorry officer, I have things to do and do not wish to have a conversation, this shows you do not consent to a conversation. If cop pursued response should then have been am I being detained? Of course without this being on some kind of recording device, it's hard to prove your case so use judgement.

It depends on the state, not all states are stop-and-id=state. But without at least reasonable suspicion, and not being in a stop and id state, he could not legally have checked his id.