They were in jail, when their cohorts smuggled them guns, they died in a shoot out while trying to escape.
I said a romance cowboy movie, because you Jeff are apparently trying to make this incident into something it was not by romanticizing it.
Those 'cohorts' had names.
Smith's personal secretary, John S. Fullmer, first smuggled in the single-shot pistol. Later, Cyrus H. Wheelock smuggled in the six-shot 1837 patent Ethan Allen pistol. According to the Official History of the Church, Chapter XXXIII, p. 602-622 (I'm reading from a non-paginated version, since lds.org removed the Official History of the Church from its website last fall), upon receiving the six-shot pistol, Joseph Smith gave the single-shot pistol to his brother, Hyrum.
This is a particularly touchy historical point for me, because last December I was called a liar, a 'poisoner of the truth', and therefor unfit to lead Scouts on this forum when I said that guns had been smuggled into the jail. I continued to be called a liar even after I posted the cites and links to the Official History of the Church, cites to CES lessons naming Wheelock, and screenshots from CES materials, including the photo of the pistols from the LDS museum.
Not being romanticised in the least. They were attacked while in jail by a mob intent on killing them. Of course they defended themselves. Of course they tried to avoid it.
You talk as if though constables shot it out with them when they tried to make a forced escape...but that is not the way it occurred at all. The guards left them...they were attacked by people who came there with the specific purpose of killing them...not at all as officers of the law.
So, when illegally attacked, they fought back...and tried to avoid the hail fo gunfire. Joseph and Hyrum were killed.
Nothing romantic about any of that. Cold blooded murder, plain and simple. Even if they were being held in jail.