I understand you; the point is it’s not just grammatical pedantry. Passive language is deliberately used to reduce feelings of culpability. “The suspect died in custody” is less blame pointing than “Police denied suspect treatment for injuries, leading to his death in custody”.

Even if people understand that the police would be the ones with the rubber bullets, there’s an emotional response behind “Police shot at reporter” that you don’t get from “reporter was hit by bullet”.