Unquestionably. But did the officer order her to "drop the knife"? I didn't see any mention of that happening -- It seems that Shelton just fired away immediately.
If that's what happened, IMO that was a bad shoot. "Drop the knife!" would have changed things, who knows, she might have dropped it.
If somebody was holding a knife to my wife I would just shoot. Not sure why it would be different for a cop protecting somebody.
And now with her dead, perhaps the only adult witness to his abuse is gone too. Once he isn’t beating on the child it becomes a court case - not a self defense issue.
He did say “Drop it”.
After he shot her.
She was very close to the “boyfriend.” Being dropped into that situation without context would be a tough one. I wouldn’t want to ride herd on that demographic.