The phrase to shoot a traffic-light (also to shoot the red light, to shoot the amber, etc.) means: to drive past a traffic-light when it indicates that one should stop.

—Cf. also ‘to shoot a traffic-light’: early British uses.

The earliest American-English uses that I have found of this phrase are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From an article by Ed Friedman, NEA * service writer, published in several U.S. newspapers on Saturday 4^th December 1926—for example in The State Journal (Lansing, Michigan, USA) [page 10, column 6]:

America has a new outdoor sport, that of beating the traffic lights.
It consists of speeding up at the last minute so as to pass a light-protected crossing before the green turns to red. There are many angles to this sport that entice the motorist and keep the traffic cops guessing.
One is that of “shooting the yellow”—moving forward as soon as the yellow or caution light shows. It’s a dangerous practice, warn the police, because yellow is merely a caution light for all traffic to be at a standstill, but permitting those cars unable to stop readily to cross unmolested.

* Here, NEA apparently stands for Newspaper Enterprise Association.

2-: From the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA) of Monday 7^th March 1927 [page 21, column 1]:

GOSS DENOUNCES DRIVERS WHO PASS RED ‘STOP’ LIGHTS
City Starts Campaign Against Motorists Who Disregard Signals

A relentless campaign against automobile drivers who wilfully pass a red “stop” light of the city traffic system was started today by Alderman Thomas Goss, acting police magistrate in police court, who delivered a scathing denunciation against these violators.
Magistrate Goss’ tirade against the wild drivers of the macadam was given when he fined a motorist brought before him for violation of the traffic laws, by Patrolman Paul Gates. A heavy fine of $25 and costs was placed upon this defendant and brought the threat from Magistrate Goss that all like violators in the future will receive the same punishment.
Motorists who in a hurry, menace the life and limb of pedestrians by shooting past the red light will be arrested without ceremony by all city police officers and will be subjected to the $25 fine or make up the fine in Luzerne County jail.

3-: From “We’ll See Them Kid!”: The Confessions of a Gangster Girl, published in the Mount Carmel News (Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, USA) of Thursday 1^st November 1928 [Vol. 57, No. 348, page 2, column 1]:

As I collapsed against the side of the car Charlie heard me gasp that I was shot. He lifted me into the seat, got in and drove out of there with all speed.
[…]
“Grit your teeth. For God’s sake stick it out, honey—I’ll have you fixed up,” he said, shooting past a traffic light despite the blasts of the cop’s whistle.

4-: From The Post-Star (Glens Falls, New York, USA) of Friday 28^th December 1928 [Vol. 25, No. 6,781, page 4, column 2]:

The long list of auto accidents which have been appearing daily in the Glens Falls newspapers for the last month reveals the intolerable condition which has resulted by the laxity in enforcing our traffic laws.
“Why pan the police? What can they do?” was the way one of the public servants put it yesterday when approached on the subject of the increasing number of autos “shooting” the yellow lights and the speeding of heavy trucks and passenger cars through the main thoroughfares of the city.

5-: From the New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania, USA) of Wednesday 23^rd January 1929 [Vol. 49, No. 110, page 23, column 5]:

A few days ago, Captain J. Ed. Elder and Officer Charles Longstreth were in the Seventh ward district, when they saw the car of Albert Gigler of Ambridge, Pa., shoot through the red light at Madison avenue and North Liberty street at fifty miles an hour and disappear in the distance.
They secured the number, however, and a letter was written to Gigler telling him of the fact that he owed New Castle $3 for passing through a red light and $10 for speeding. The money was received from him today.

6-: From The Post-Star (Glens Falls, New York, USA) of Thursday 7^th March 1929 [Vol. 25, No. 6,840, page 4, column 1]:

The Post-Star has campaigned for several months for the rigid enforcement of traffic laws. It has stressed the importance of enforcing the law against maniacal speeders and drivers who “shoot” the red light.

7-: From The Gazette and Daily (York, Pennsylvania, USA) of Wednesday 22^nd May 1929 [Vol. 83, No. 13,738, page 1, column 1]:

A good rule for autoists is to drive as if they were back seat drivers, Gladys. You can say about the back seat drivers what you like, but many a person in the back seat would use better judgement in the pinches than a lot of the bimboes who Lord it mightily at the wheel and who disregard dangerous curves, through traffic stops and red signal lights as if they did not exist. Then there is the bird who persists in starting off as soon as the amber light begins to glow and who tries to shoot past a red light when a traffic cop is not looking.