I can pretty easily see how the cops sending less-than-lethal rounds at the boat for an hour would be reported by the news media as a shootout.
I also can not see any scenario where a person is hiding in a fiberglass boat, surrounded by cops, and starts shooting at them, but comes out alive.
I'll believe that he was unarmed, that he never shot at police from the boat, and that the news got it wrong if they say that he did, all because of the simple fact that he's not hamburger.