[JSanders]

No, he shouldn't have hit her, for the same reasons stated earlier.

For any non-compliant subject, in control of and using a deadly weapon (she was ramming her car against the officer's car and continuing to rev her engine against it) he probably should have used the billy club or blackjack. Male or female, they both can go crazy and do idiot things such as she was at this moment, and the officer has no idea what she would do next. Bringing the situation under control did keep it from escalating to something further.