Personally, I'd suspect that it's hardly ever wise to rely on a media (especially newspaper) account of something to try and understand what really happened ...
The article was poorly written, granted. I'd like to say that I've never read a crime report written by another cop that was as bad, but I can't say that ... I can even admit to having read worse, as a matter of fact, and really wonder what standards they're using nowadays to evaluate and pass folks in FTO programs.
Eye witnesses can be unreliable.
Sometimes witnesses can make a lot of assumptions, even to the point of drawing conclusions, instead of providing whatever clear & unbiased observations they may possess.
Sometimes they desperately want to tell you what they think is important, instead of answering what you ask. They may take offense if you don't want to hear their opinions and conclusions, but only learn what they specifically actually heard or saw.
Sometimes they may have a personal reason to distort the facts, or at least take great liberties with them.
Sometimes they simply don't understand what occurred, or remember it as it occurred.
Defensive wounds can often be identified by medical examinations.
There are often more witnesses to an event than you might think. The trick is finding them and getting them to cooperate.
Not every defensive problem requires a gun, either.
It 's not common to hear an ordinary citizen apparently entice someone, whom they know is armed, to shoot them. It might not be all that unbelieveable to learn that someone with a felony criminal history involving violence might do something like that, though.
None of us can render judgment on what happened, nor should we try ...
We weren't there, for one thing, and it's not our responsibility for another.
It does sort of sound like another day at work ...
Stay safe and AWARE folks.