When men whom you have every reason to believe are _some_ form of LEO are setting up heavily armed roadblocks at a time you KNOW police are out to capture you by darned near any means necessary (including barely legal), the fact that they may be lying to you and “are not instantly recognizable as who they claim to be” is a very minor point. He dared them to shoot, and gave them reason to; now he’s dead, go figure.
No facts are on the table that prove that.
They'd already shot once - he was daring them to prove they were dirty little yellowback cowards.
Which they did, handily. :)