Nothing he did makes any sense to me. If I know my tail light is out and get pulled over, I just tell the officer the truth and at worst he hands me a ticket. I mail it in with a check or call it in with a credit card and end of story.
What does make sense is suicide by police. That would explain why he led police on two separate high speed chases, shot at police while running away, and him leaving the gun in his car, and we will likely find out he made some move that led police to believe he was or did pull out a weapon. Why would he do that? According to his family, his fiancee just broke up with him and he was very distraught.