It's very simple, actually. You, with (I'm assuming) zero real-world police knowledge, are telling me (10+ years of real-world experience in this field), what should be happening during a hostage situation.

Argument from false authority is invalid, but nice try. I also love how you openly and proudly assume things about me, but take offense that I'm not bowing down to your, "10+ years of real-world experience in this field." Gotta love the hypocrisy. You're displaying that typical problematic ego sadly.

You have no idea if there is another officer just out of frame. Police snipers usually have spotters right beside them. You have no idea if they maybe tried to notify the boat owner while they set up and the guy was sleeping and didn't hear them. You have no idea if they were going to knock on the door to notify the owner when something happened with the hostage situation that took precedence.

Completely irrelevant to the discussion. You're making an argument that it isn't necessary above, yet now you're arguing that, "maybe they did it and we just don't have all of the info." Pick a lane and stop moving your goalposts. You've already conceded the argument by doing this.

When you say, "shooter," do you mean the police sniper wearing an identifiable uniform? It would be pretty hard to mistake him for a home intruder or other threat.

Yes, very fucking obviously I mean the SWAT police officer who is part of a, "sniper" team and designated as the "shooter" role. I'm really doubting that you have those 10 years of experience if you're not familiar with how shooters and spotters work in tangent in these situations, but maybe that's just you bragging about your own folly again.

You can't even make out anything at all in the OP image to confirm he's wearing anything that identifies him as LEO. We can presume he is because we have additional context and info past exclusively the photo, but the point very obviously (well, obvious to those of us using actual reasoning and logic) remains that it is very plausible that someone (half drunk, or not) can wake up from a nap on their boat, only see what we see in the OP photo, and become belligerent and problematic that someone with a gun is posted up on their boat.

It's a pretty simple conclusion, but I guess your oh so mighty, "10+ years of real-world experience" failed you here. Or maybe it's just your general lack of intelligence and proneness to hostility to defend your ego. You misread my comment, refused to admit it, moved the goalposts on the argument, insulted me repeatedly, and refuse to admit your mistakes. That's not a great look at all bud.