One, police are not psychiatric nurses, individuals like this years back before they shut down the asylums would have been locked in one, and hopefully cared for correctly. It's unfortunate,but care in the community is anything but. So there ought to be a discussion nationally,and internationally as UK for instance has the same problem here, about how the mentally ill are best cared for,and there ought to be further research done on better treatments as well as the illness themselves. Compared to physical illness, mental illness gets much less money spent on it. Drugging in the community is a recipe for disaster in some people. This person is one. Hell he was even known in the area, as having these issues, yet nothing was done....
two, while I defend the police for being forced to intervene with people they do not have nearly enough training to deal with, I know for a fact in the UK for instance, taser would have been deployed first, only in very rare circumstances would lethal force be used straight away , either taser or a plastic bullet (or baton round as they call them in the UK, which can also kill but far less likely than a real bullet) , in fact this is how UK police deal with a machete wielding man.
Notice the use of bins as makeshift shields, as I said early the UK also has the same problem with the mentally ill not being in the right place., but at least the man was still alive after.
I would have thought ,in particular as this man was known locally as ill,the police would have tried a different approach.