My first thought as well. That poor CHP Officer.
My second thought was, why did the doctors have to announce that all 5 of the shots by the murderer would not have killed him? How is that important for the public to know? Why couldn’t everyone have just known that he sustained 6 shots one of which happened to be friendly fire?
It probably happens a lot more than we know, and people do just as you say.
I was astonished to learn how many of our casualties in WWII were from friendly fire. 21 percent is claimed. In Vietnam, they say it was 39 percent. Our FF casualties in Vietnam were so much higher, because we outmatched the enemy in firepower by such a large amount.