Why?

And to contrast...

Guy charges at a cop with a knife in both hands.  Gets aired out by 10 police semi-automatic fully automatic murder pistols with high ammunition magazine clips and hollow point bullets that cause extra wounding.  Dies.  Community wants to know why.

Not why he died.  Ten people shot at him, probably more than once, and probably a lot of them shots hit him.  That's why he died.  No.  Why they shot him.

Well, it sounds like knifey handsy was a bit disturbed in the head and was trying to commit suicide.  He was successful.  And cops weren't able to isolate knifey handsy so he couldn't hurt police officers or flee and hurt members of the public, and were sorta backed into a corner on possible acceptable course of action when it went all kinetic.

(Of course, this news story might have gotten hordes of details factually wrong.  And my conjecture thus rendered useless.  A justifiable shooting, and a damn shame all around.) 

"Why didn't you shoot to wound?"

"Why didn't you just lasso him?"

Because this is Hyattsville, not Hollywood.

"Was people's safety even thought about?"

Oh, yes, that's why he was shot.  By ten cops.  After the cops' desperately trying to diffuse the high emotion situation for half an hour.  Just awful for everyone.