How many of the shots that he fired hit the vehicle? The story doesn’t say. Could he have been, as he claims, trying to take out a tire?
While that may or may not be proper procedure, it’s clearly different than shooting up the car with unknown occupants inside.
Best line from a cop in a fictional TV program (before they all became JBTs): “They [fleeing suspects] can shoot at us. We’re not allowed to shoot at them.”
When shooting at a fleeing vehicle, the best shot in the world is just as likely to hit something behind the moving target. That should be driven into their fat heads before they take their first shot on a range.
Don’t. Shoot. At. Moving. Cars.
He still did not need to shoot the van, unless she was firing shots at him. He could have, and his fellow officers, could have kept following her and until she ran out of gas or they could have set up a roadblock farther down the road and boxed her in.
The had options beyond expediency.