“As to why they would kill him, it was because a car was going by them and they shot at it because that’s what Russians are doing. They didn’t know it was Bret Renaud in the car, or even a non-Ukrainian.
They were told to shoot at anything that moved, so they did.”
Not sure why Russians would be shooting at him at a Ukrainian checkpoint, but even so, not too wise to shoot through a checkpoint, any checkpoint, in a war zone.
Because he wasn’t a him. He was a moving object. Do you think the Sioux and Cheyenne were only scalping whites at Little Big Horn? In war, lots of people get killed, and usually the party doing the killing doesn’t take time to differentiate and have a “why” for each shot fire.
Probably, the conscript-who-shot-him’s thoughts were “CAR!” and “SHOOT!” and then “OK. NEXT.” A fellow journo probably saw the whole thing.
“Not sure why Russians would be shooting at him at a Ukrainian checkpoint...”
He was past the checkpoint. He was - according to the wounded surviving reporter in the car with him - PAST the checkpoint.