Driver murdered pedestrian.

You could be struck by a car and not killed

Its sounding like they don’t want to make assumptions or accusations to me. In some places this is a legal requirement, depending on whether someone has been arrested or not. Not sure about Canada. Could also be protecting themselves from libeling someone or just journalistic standards of not reporting guess work.

If I stabbed someone, the headline would not be “person stabbed by knife”. Even if it was an accident caused by me waving it around recklessly in the kitchen or something, that would be a ridiculous headline.