As I understand it, they were going there to question them in the disappearance of the neighbors, for which they also had a warrant for the two men's arrest. They WERE walking up to the cabin, when the trooper was shot.
Note: had a warrant for their arrest. That means that they had to swear out an affidavit of Probable Cause, for review by a judge or magistrate, before going there. But they did NOT just arrive in an armored vehicle out of hand-- they tried the walking up thing first, and a cop got shot with a rifle for his trouble. Okay. Plan B. An armored car at that point is a pretty good idea, IMHO, when advancing on a couple of men who are armed and have already shot at a cop.
Why not arrest them elsewhere? Several good reasons that I can think of. First, they still need to find the missing neighbors. Time is of the essence. They need to go to where the men are, and pick them up quickly. My bet is that that warrant was also a search warrant, and where better to look than in the lair of the kidnappers? I gathered that it wasn't until AFTER the ramming and subsequent search, that they knew of the military gear and weapons cache. While of course this is going to be the highlighted part of the news story, none of what I just read in the CNN article indicates an overreaction by the police. This doesn't look like a Mt Carmel, nor Ruby Ridge. Then again, I just read a short article, from one source. Perhaps you have more information??
