I think we can start the paperwork for Anthony Jacob Chavez’s Darwin Award:

Albuquerque police say an alleged probation violator threatened a deputy U.S. marshal with a BB gun before the deputy marshal shot him.

Authorities have said Deputy Marshal Kenneth Daniel shot and killed 27-year-old Anthony Jacob Chavez at a home on July 2.

Chavez was on probation on a conviction for transporting people illegally in the United States. The conviction resulted from a 2010 arrest in Luna County.

I’m tempted to write Chavez’s death off as a suicide-by-cop. Even those individuals with room temperature IQs know that pointing a firearm—real or replica—at a law enforcement officer is a Very Bad Idea™.

Chavez violated the terms of his federal parole by failing drug tests (plural), and by being charged with a vehicular homicide for the death of 24-year-old Christian Gurule in a May, 2013 collision.  A Marshals Service task force attempted to serve an arrest warrant when Chavez inexplicably pointed the BB gun at Deputy Marshal Kenneth Daniel, prompting Daniel to fire.

The Albuquerque Police Department is in charge of investigating the shooting, a reversal of the on-going federal civil rights investigation of the APD’s reputation for shooting first and asking questions later.

Chavez’s was a stupid death. While I don’t have much sympathy for Chavez himself, he left behind a wife and two children, ages 8 and 10, who now have to face a life without a husband and a father.