General News Officer shoots teen to death who was carrying a fake rifle

'murica. there you have it. i hope you are happy.

 

I attribute more fault to the child, there's a reason why fake guns are bright orange!! The replica could have me sweating bullets too! The officer did what he felt was necessary, and the boy was warned.

No faults here imo aside from the parents who let their child carry a very serious replica for a very serious tool.

 

I'm not sure, I feel like it's both parties' fault but...

 

It's Murica... I don't expect anything else. I feel sorry for the sane people that live in the US...

 

Well... These days, you never know who the next psycho to go on a killing spree is. I understand the cop's point of view, but they shouldn't have shot him.

 

In the event that an unidentified person makes a move with a gun, the cop has a right to protect his life without having to wait for the person to shoot first. I feel for the kid, because the first instinct when somebody is talking to you is to turn and look at them. But I don't think the cop was in the wrong; had the kid dropped whatever he was holding immediately, nobody would have died.

 

People aren't robots though. I doubt a 13-year-old is walking on the street thinking "better be ready at a moment's notice to do whatever some dude that starts yelling tells me." He had no time to react.

 

That's why I said I feel for the kid. The cop could have seen that it was a teenager and maybe not believed he was an expert marksman and cold killer. Basically, he was justified in shooting, but it was ultimately poor judgment.

 

I hate to say it, but he pointed the thing at the cop, anybody would have shot. That's the very reason that they put the orange caps on toy guns, and apparently he'd taken it off. Normally, I hate American police with a burning passion because of the corruption and lawlessness, but this one is understandable.
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Holy cow, looking at Google Maps, this was about 3 miles from where my aunt lives.

 

To be fair I have limited sympathy for the boy, okay its sad he has lost his life but that gun could be seen as an offensive weapon even if its only airsoft, it looks realistic, you could pull it on someone and hold up a bank with it (this happened in the UK) so now the police treat these replicas as real, you can't tell until you handle the firearm, considering some airsoft guns are actually licensed from the likes of Glock and Smith and Weston its understandable.

Don't get me wrong I have nothing against legitimate gun ownership, I am planning to get a license for shooting since I go to the college range and do it. But having a realistic airsoft in public is asking for trouble, in the UK legit airsoft guns have to be transparent (so you can see the mechanism and know its fake) and have orange (only orange) tips and triggers.

 

Then again, maybe its unreasonable to expect a 13 year old to consider the consequences of taking something he probably considered an innocent toy into public.

 

I think it's most likely that the kid didn't understand that he was likely to be shot over this. However, the police don't know that. All they know is that he's turning to face them with what looks like a real gun after having been told to drop it. Is it understandable that the kid reacted by turning around instead of dropping the gun? Yes. Did the officers probably feel genuinely threatened? Yes. Did the officers know it was fake? No. I have to peg this as justified and incredibly tragic.

 

I guess but still kids with guns have killed people, and respectfully a 13 year old knows what a gun is and possibly the consequences of pointing it at a cop. His parents are somewhat to blame for this.

 

as sad as this story is, i think the officer did the right thing, the weapon really looks like the real thing except for the lack of the front sights and muzzle, which could have been difficult to see, and if it was the real thing, it has much more firepower than any thing the officer had, i think he had every right to be feared, replicas should have some kind of easily identifiable unrealistic coloring so that things like this couldn't happen

 

If I were the cop, I would have shot the kid, too.

 

Ok, I can understand why the cop shot him. But was 8 rounds really necessary? Thats a little overkill to me.

 

It's not abnormal at all, and maybe a bit on the low side. It can take a few seconds for the body to react to being shot, which is enough time to get off a shot in response. The way to prevent this is to overwhelm the target with rounds, making it far less likely the target is going to do anything but drop. This is something drilled into police officers' heads in firearm training, to make it the first instinct in a gunfight.

 

It was sadly the kid's fault. I hate to say it, though.

 

Some cities have such corrupted law enforcement. I think that's why more and more people are depending on owning a gun instead of relying on the authorities.

I feel that the kid's parents or any other adults who's in charge of him are at fault. Some guns-imitations look very realistic and I don't understand why parents would let their kids play with them with the orange caps off.

I strongly believe that it's the parent's responsibility to monitor what their child carries with him/her. If I was his dad, I would've super-glued the orange caps on the muzzle.

But here's one question I've been wondering, how would he have an assault weapon? We have an Assault Weapons Ban enforced in California.

Since mass shootings and drive-by shootings have been happening in the U.S lately, including the one that recently happened in Nevada, many people are paranoid about who's going to be the next shooter. So I actually believe that the cop did the right thing.