This is a touchy subject, and you ahve 2 perdominating poit of views here.
One side, mostly LEO's, is absolutley certain that anyone who would shoot a LEO is scum, and that there is never any reason to shoot a LEO. ( I am not saying that it should have been done in this case) They cannot comprehend that anyone wopuld fell different.
The other side feels that anyone who assists the BATF in any regard is no longer worthy of any sympathy from us if they get injured. The BATF is doing its best to restrict our freeedoms, has a long history of abuse and lies, and regularly targets regular gun owners who make technical violations instead of going after more dangerous criminals. (and yes, before you ask, I have dealt with them in several cases).
And that boils it down for most of the arguements. I am curous why he was targeted in this case by the ATF, as I know a LEO here who had a clear cut case of felon in possession twice and the ATF failed to act twice, and this was a guy with a history of assualt, attempted murder, and many others. Both times the ATF was contacted repeatedly and wasn't interested. Yet they have time to run after this guy who has clearly done worse. Hmmm.....
LEO's, be careful of the company you keep. Just as you would assume that someone who moves into your community and starts hanging around with the known troublemakers is a trouble maker, we will assume someone who assists those who have a history of lies, abuse of power, and is working to restrict our rights of being the same.
Before I make my final judgements I am gonna have to more know about the case. What exactly constituted impersonating a LEO in this case? A few years ago the amatuer radio community was abuzz because a 12 year old ham was charged with impersonating a LEO in KY, 2 counts. The reason.. 1st count hew was in possession of a radio that worked on police frequencies (not true, but it "looked like it might" so they charged him) second count displaying fake government credentials...a National weather service issued "Skywarn" card given to weather spotters. So I need to know more about these charges.
Same with his prior convictions, he could be a bad dude, or it could have been something that came out of a divorce gone bad where he went into his old house to get some of his belongings, we don't know.
If I had some BS charge that someone made stick, or was forced to plea guilty to a felony because I didn't have the resources to fight a whole bunch of BS charges that had been brought (The ATF loves to bring enough charges to threaten someone with backruptcy in order to get them to plea bargain to 1 felony or so) I wonder how I would have reacted. You can only push a man so far till you cross the line.
LEO's, consider that these cases are possible, and remember that every man has his line in the sand. His may have been crossed. Then again, we need to consider that he may just be scum. It could go either way.