Good golly. It is funny how you question one element of something that you are totally against it. I have no clue if the cops were justified or not. Your assessment is reasonable, in fact, I tend to agree with it. I do know that it was NOT a safe shot, given the vehicle directly in the line of fire. I would not have taken the shot. I would have repositioned to either side of the road. Would I have been more exposed? You bet. But if he shot at me down the road or I at him, it is too dangerous. Shooting perpendicular to the road seemed a better option.
My point is, many of the officer shootings are very dangerous. There was one in Chicago where the vehicle passed between two officers on either side of the street. At one point, they were aimed directly at each other if not shooting awfully darn close to each other. Later in the same vid an officer is reloading while running behind another officer. From his body cam you can see he is aimed at the other officer. I was stopped by the cops once while one held a pistol on me with another officer directly in the line of fire. They are amateurs.
My point is, their procedure is dangerous. They clearly do not practice these scenarios or safe conduct. It is one of the reasons they get in trouble.
There looks to be a black object on the ground between the suspect and the car. Did he drop something, a weapon ?