What astounds me is how the left keeps assuming that the officers should have just let the guy go after he assaulted the cops, stole their weapon and tried to fire it at them.

This criminal was violating his parole by driving drunk and the cops had a duty to arrest him and put his ass back in jail. He was a threat to society (drunk driving kills way more people per year than cops) and was breaking the law.

They had to keep pursuing him and attempting to effectuate the arrest which became increasingly dangerous after the fist encounter where he punched the cop, stole a taser and tried running. There was going to be a second close-combat encounter that was going to be incredibly dangerous, and what the left ignores is the fact that once that second close-combat scenario occurred, this guy was likely to go for an officer's handgun.