Only by someone who doesn't know anything about dogs at all.
A Catahoula looks nothing like a pit bull, both in terms of jaw structure and body type. Catahoulas have narrow jaws; Pit Bulls have very wide jaws. Catahoulas have light frames, in contrast to the much heavier frames of Pit Bulls. Catahoulas are also significantly taller at the shoulder as well. In general, Catahoulas are not even colored similarly to Pit Bulls, although I'm sure there are exceptions.
Basically, the two breeds look totally different. Not that the officer would have been any more justified in shooting a pit bull, given the same circumstances.
I owned a Catahoula Leopard Cow Hog Dog a couple of decades ago, and she was the most intelligent dog I've ever had in my family. Catahoulas, in my experience, aren't particularly aggressive either.
This just happens too often, and it never used to. What a bunch of wusses police have become, to do this type of thing so frequently and readily!
Just saying, in the overall scheme of things, most people DON’T know dogs “at all” and they DO mistake Catahoula (I recognized one at the dog bath I literally frequented and the owner herself told me how many assumed it was a pit type) and Labs and other types sometimes for PBT.
It’s not written in stone that people must know alot about dogs, either. Lord knows being in dog showing taught me alot about what dog is what.
As for LEOs shooting dogs, maybe it does happen too frequently, or at least they are too trigger-happy. I don’t really know, because there is no serious study on it.