New details came to light recently in the investigation into a fatal shooting incident that involved Cocopah Police Chief James Spurgeon.

Spurgeon and Angela Cochnauer, an employee of the agency Spurgeon headed, were asleep in Cochnauer’s Yuma apartment when they were attacked by a man wielding a baseball bat in the early morning hours of Oct. 26, according to investigators.

Spurgeon and Cochnauer were both beaten, and Spurgeon was stabbed multiple times before he finally retrieved his handgun and shot and killed his attacker, Yuma police said. That may indicate Spurgeon acted justifiably to defend his and another person’s life.

But even if the investigation ends up absolving Spurgeon, no one can rightly accuse the Cocopah Tribe of a rush to judgment in terminating Spurgeon as police chief.