13-year-old boy carrying pellet gun shot dead by police in California

[orphanedhawk]

Police in Santa Rosa say they thought the replica firearm the teenager was carrying as he walked to a friend's house was real

Hundreds of people marched through the northern Californian town of Santa Rosa on Wednesday night to demand justice for the death of a 13-year-old boy shot by police while carrying a pellet gun to his friend’s house.

Andy Lopez was killed the day after a 12-year-old boy shot dead a maths teacher and himself at a school in the neighbouring state of Nevada. Two Santa Rosa sheriff’s deputies said they opened fire after repeatedly asking Andy to drop the replica assault rifle, which they believed to be real. The teenager was declared dead at the scene on Tuesday.
According to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the deputies were driving by when they spotted the teenager walking “with what appeared to be some type of rifle”. Lopez had his back to the officers, who did not realise he was a boy. They called for backup and, they said, ordered him twice to drop the gun. The teenager was around 20-30ft away when he turned towards them. “He was holding the weapon in his left hand,” said Lt Paul Henry of Santa Rosa Police. “He began to turn toward his right in the direction of the deputy, and he moved the gun toward the deputy, and the deputy’s mindset was that he was fearful he would be shot.”
One eyewitness recounted the incident to the news station KGO-TV. “He pulled over to the kid walking and he just opened the door and shot him, three shots,” Ismael Mondragon said.

The boy’s father, Rodrigo Lopez, told reporters his son had borrowed the replica AK-47 from a friend, and was walking to the other boy’s home to return it. “It’s not right what they did to my son,” Mr Lopez said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/13yearold-boy-carrying-pellet-gun-shot-dead-by-police-in-california-8900696.html

[el_em_en_oh]

Do you expect any less from OH? Vague quotes from vague sources, giving even vaguer insight into something that they couldn't possibly know.

The kid is DEAD. How on earth could the source on the local radio know or not know what the kid did & didn't understand?

I see things are status quo around here, and I didn't miss much in the 4 months that I was MIA.

[specialmom]

I think it Is sad.  And wrong.  It was 'over kill' literally.  And it is highly disturbing to me that we live in a time in which police are afraid of kids with plastic guns.  That the assumption is that it is real and he's about to use it on people.  Not that 'this is a 13 year old kid and the likelihood that he has a real gun is low, let's talk to him."  

Guns are too readily available that now police have to shoot on sight rather than think logically because now we really have 13 year olds taking guns to school and shooting teachers.  CRAZY.  How did it get to this?  

And it makes me evaluate things in my own home.  My kids love all the 'boy toys' of plastic guns, nerf swords, archery, etc.  They love super heroes and cowboys.  Etc.  Am I doing the wrong thing by letting them have access to this type of entertainment (movies around such, video games?) and these toys?  

But when I was a kid, kids also played with that stuff.  *I* as a girl even had that stuff.  

Maybe it is the increased violence in video games?  Maybe it is the amount of time kids play video games?  Maybe back in the day more parents were home or at least one parent home after school and now kids are daycare/latch key/ home alone from cradle to college?  

I don't know.  But I think it is a sad statement about where our youth is at in this period of time.  

[R Glass]

“A report on our local radio station quoted a witness who said Andy Lopez ( the victim) didn't seem to know the police were behind him and didn't know if he understood when they told him to " Stand Down."

This “witnesses” statement makes no since at all.

[brice1967]

I don't think there is a police academy in the country that teaches "shoot to disarm".  What is the practicality of that?  You shoot to disarm someone and accidentally kill them.  Now what do you have?  If you guess lawsuit, I'd bet there would be a chicken dinner in it for you.

A good cop thinks good and hard before he pulls the trigger.  I can assure you of that.  Prove that these were bad cops or rogue cops and perhaps you have a foot to stand on.

In that very same situation, if I did not understand the language and a couple of cops had guns pointed at me?  Ditch the gun and find some ground, face down with my hands and legs out to the side.

[orphanedhawk]

A report on our local radio station quoted a witness who said Andy Lopez ( the victim) didn't seem to know the police were behind him and didn't know if he understood when they told him to " Stand Down."

How many of you know what Stand Down means???
Stand down is a military term.
Why didn't they simply say,
" This is the police, drop your gun "?? repeatedly ????

The problem, I believe is how the police are being trained.
They are being told shoot to kill rather than try to disarm. It's the only explanation that fits.

[rivll]

This brings to mind a story of something that happened while I was teaching HS in S.F. In the middle of class one of my students pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. It was a toy but it looked very real. I looked at her and said "Give that to me right now!" She put it back in her backpack and I said "Uhuh, you need to give that to me." So she handed it to me and I saw it was fake (and finally exhaled) and then I laid into her, I said "Do you have any idea of what would happen to you if the school officer passed by just now? Are you crazy? This is how you kids get killed!" I had to turn it into the office, she was suspended and missed prom and graduation.
This was before all those mass shootings in schools, now she would probably be arrested. Anyway, as foolish as she was she was harmless., Kids can be stupid and they really need to learn from an early age how dangerous it is to even play like that in public.