In no way was this a desired outcome and we really know very little about the situation, but let’s be fair.
What the police knew:
There is a protection from abuse order against this man.
He is violating this order.
He is threatening them with deadly force, the tree branches.
He quickly upgrades his weapon to a metal rake.
And the solution here is to back off? What happens when the LEO’s back away a little bit and the guy darts into the garage and grabs a firearm, or runs into the group of people and drives the rake tines into the woman’s or someone else’s head, and takes away their sight or kills them? OOOP’s?
It’s a bad situation, but it’s one this man created for himself.