The background, briefly, because it's grim: on Saturday night a van was driven into a crowd near Berlin's Pride festival at Tiergarten, killing one woman and injuring at least 29 people, followed by stabbings; on Sunday, police ended the manhunt in Spandau by shooting the suspect when — according to police — he rushed at officers with a knife. That's the event. Here's the grammar. * The BBC's headline: "Berlin Pride attack suspect shot and killed during police operation." Parse that for a second. The suspect was shot and killed. By whom? The headline offers you a clue — "during police operation" — but 'during' is a when, not a who. In this sentence, the operation is scenery, and somewhere inside it, shots occurred. Like weather. * The funny part is the BBC's own article, which is not remotely confused about what happened. First sentence: the suspect "has been shot and killed by police." Second sentence, braver still: "Officers opened fire when Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen with Lebanese heritage, rushed at them with a knife." Actor, action, reason — all present and accounted for. The facts weren't hiding. Only the headline was shy. * Now the Guardian, same story, same day: "Police shoot dead Berlin Pride van and knife rampage suspect, officials say." Subject: police. Verb: shoot dead. Attribution: officials say. Every ingredient the BBC's headline tiptoed around, printed in full, and the sky did not fall on Kings Place. * Here's what makes this one genuinely strange. There is no scandal to cushion. Germany's interior minister says the evidence points to an "Islamist terror attack"; prosecutors say the suspect had tried to join Islamic State and was out on a deferred sentence; police say he charged them with a knife. If there was ever a headline where 'police shot him' could be typed with a clear conscience, it's this one. * Which is the tell. When a newsroom writes the passive on the hard days AND the easy days, it's not caution anymore — it's a reflex. In BBC headline-land, things simply happen: missiles land unclaimed, attacks 'unfold,' and suspects get shot by operations. The reader is left doing the newsroom's grammar homework. * A headline has maybe a dozen words to tell you who did what. The BBC spent four of them — 'during police operation' — describing the room where the answer was.