[acobster]

That still doesn't mean he shot first.

[Quillbert182]

If the police shot first, he would be dead before he shot the officer.

[woodruffw]

Why? The concept of a "shootout" is well-understood; there's no particular to reason to believe that a cop shooting first is guaranteed to hit their target.

[kcplate]

It doesn’t, but that doesn’t matter. You still don’t get an “automatic cops won’t shoot you back” pass if they fired first.