By putting himself in that location, he created a plausible pretext for shooting her. So long as he was standing there, any indication of movement on the part of the driver could then be later justified as placing him in fear of his life and justifying firing on the driver.

I'm not even a "thin blue line" fan and I agree with this. That action gets cast by lefties as willfully careless by the officer but I was observing the distraction/heat of the moment issue. That's the other way of looking at it.

I read somewhere that ironically in 2020 Gov Waltz apparently signed a Minnesota law into existence that gave law enforcement the legal means to use deadly force against a suspect who disregards instructions and continues to drive their vehicle.

It's almost as if he had pretty much decided beforehand to shoot her.

That's arguable. I see what you're saying but I attribute his actions mostly to adrenaline and distraction from being surrounded by hostiles while doing his job. It would be really hard to focus for anyone in that situation and those circumstances would push someone over the edge to make a fatal decision that otherwise they wouldn't.