why it needed to escalate so quickly and violently.

Once they found a potential real threat, the officers were within their rights to protect themselves and their fellow officers and to neutralize the threat.

But it doesn't seem like it needed to play out like that. The suspect sat in a parked car being a non-compliant jerk...probably with mental illness. Not an immediate threat to the officers or public safety.

May be there was no way to avoid the unfortunate situation that led to the shooting, but the officers escalated the situation by opening his car door to force him out. The encounter lasted fewer than 4 minutes.

We're talking about someone losing their life. Why not continue to talk to the person to explain the consequences if he continues to not comply and to try to convince him that the best course of action is to comply. If he continues to resist, put a boot on his unregistered car so he can't drive off. Wait at least until the tow truck arrives to impound the car.

The reason for the stop was the unregistered plates. It developed into failure to comply and possibly fraudulent identification. All of that can be looked into while the suspect continues to sit in his car.

Ultimately, the suspect would have been arrested, handcuffed, and taken into custody. But, it seems like a lot of better possible outcomes were still on the table short of creating a situation where a team of officers were now facing a self-defense situation and feeling compelled to open fire with several shots each to neutralize the new-found potential threat.