Does section 189 of the California Criminal Code apply to a robbery where a robber shot and killed a police officer while fleeing from the scene of the robbery?

[189 Cal.App.3d 793] The Dillon opinion further supports our conclusion in stating, "with respect to any homicide resulting from the commission of or attempt to commit one of the felonies listed in the statute, our decisions generally hold section 189 to be ... a degree-fixing device ... and by operation of the statute the killing is deemed to be first degree murder as a matter of law." (Emphasis in original.) (34 Cal.3d at p. 465, 194 Cal.Rptr. 390, 668 P.2d 697.) This position was also taken in People v. Mitchell (1964) 61 Cal.2d 353, 360, 38 Cal.Rptr. 726, 392 P.2d 526. There the court affirmed defendant's conviction of first degree murder where he shot and killed a police officer while attempting to escape from the scene of the robbery he had just committed. In addressing the issue of whether the evidence was sufficient to support a finding of first degree murder the court held, "a killing committed during the course of a robbery is murder in the first degree whether the killing is wilful, deliberate, and premeditated, or merely accidental, and whether or not the killing is planned as part of the commission of the robbery." (See also People v. Lookadoo (1967) 66 Cal.2d 307, 57 Cal.Rptr. 608, 425 P.2d 208; People v. Ulsh (1962) 211 Cal.App.2d 258, 27 Cal.Rptr. 508.)