While I doubt he shot someone in the face as a red herring, all the focus on the incident may be a magician's misdirection. Sort of like when Bush decided to make the whole "partial-birth abortion" thing a giant to-do so he could sound like a decent guy when everyone was hating on him.
I mean, it's sort of like saying, "I firmly disapprove of stomping puppies to death..." because if anyone says, "Hey, why all the talk about puppies? Are you trying to evade the real issues at hand?" then everyone can point fingers and say, "Puppy-stomper! Puppy-stomper!"