That wasn't what I posted. I wasn't justifying a shooting. I said that if your job was to arrest drug smugglers....people who will do whatever they can to keep from getting caught, including firing at officers in the past, would it be reasonable to believe they might be armed and that you could be killed if you let your guard down? Or would you go into a situation like that believing a drug smuggler was unarmed and harmless?
If I were in any kind of law enforcement, as a matter of personal safety, I would assume every perp was armed until I saw different or heard "clean" from another officer. I believe that is SOP. It's not a ticket to pull the trigger, though.
I could understand these guys getting wound up in the heat of things and pulling the trigger on this guy. That doesn't make it right, but I can get my mind around it. What I can't understand is the cover-up and refusal to report the incident.