Here's my completely conjectural thought on how this went down.
Lifeboat is floating too close to shore, only about 20 miles, so the Navy decides they need to move it further away from shore so that they'll be further from help. (actually, now it says they were in rough water) A SEAL diver or two goes out with a line and attaches it to the boat, and then they start towing it away. (it said the lifeboat had been under tow when the shooting went down).
The Somalis realize this, and the leader of them, presumably the most thoughtful and reasonable of the bunch, realizes that they're never going to get rescued, so he signals that he wants to talk about the situation in person. He's brought on board the Bainbridge and apparently was trying to negotiate.
The other somalis, freed of the leveling influence, get unglued when he doesn't immediately return, and visibly threaten the hostage. The captain, who has been preauthorized to use force to eliminate any risk to the hostage's life, quickly orders the shooting and the SEALs do their thing.
A lot of assumptions, but it explains how it was under tow at the time and why one of them was apparently on the Bainbridge negotiating.
Lifeboat is floating too close to shore, only about 20 miles, so the Navy decides they need to move it further away from shore so that they'll be further from help. (actually, now it says they were in rough water) A SEAL diver or two goes out with a line and attaches it to the boat, and then they start towing it away. (it said the lifeboat had been under tow when the shooting went down).
The Somalis realize this, and the leader of them, presumably the most thoughtful and reasonable of the bunch, realizes that they're never going to get rescued, so he signals that he wants to talk about the situation in person. He's brought on board the Bainbridge and apparently was trying to negotiate.
The other somalis, freed of the leveling influence, get unglued when he doesn't immediately return, and visibly threaten the hostage. The captain, who has been preauthorized to use force to eliminate any risk to the hostage's life, quickly orders the shooting and the SEALs do their thing.
A lot of assumptions, but it explains how it was under tow at the time and why one of them was apparently on the Bainbridge negotiating.
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