Agreed. Pretti did a bunch of stupid things that should have gotten him arrested, tried, and put in jail. But nothing that should have gotten him shot.
Some day they will stop training cops to shoot when hearing the word "gun." At some departments, the word "gun" is used in training at the range for the command to commence fire.
Who wants to be a cop these days?
I could even accept that in the commotion and heat of the Moment, it is perhaps understandable the agents fired because they were put in that position by a citizen they were struggling with.
However, what I cannot excuse was noem coming out and making a statement which basically said this guy came with a gun planning to kill as many agents as possible. Before you make a statement like that in an incident like this, you make damn sure of your facts. She did not.
The only out she could have on her statement is that she said it appeared to have happened that way, but that’s not even a good enough escape clause for what she announced to the nation.
If she had come out and said of course it will be thoroughly and carefully investigated and all such incidents are a tragedy, however this is the kind of thing that can happen for whatever reason when citizens start struggling with officers during the arrest of a criminal, that would have been fine.