Police shoot 13 year old carrying fake rifle.

this happened in my home city last night. now, usually i am pissed when stuff like this happens. and i believe that police HAVE become more "shoot first and investigate later" as of late across the country. and that i despise. in this case, though, the kid DOES share some of the blame. the cops did order him to drop the rifle and put his hands up. don't know if he heard them or not. he was also probably thinking something like, "what? this is fake! can't they tell the difference?". and he was probably confused and scared. just a tragedy that i sincerely wish there fewer in our world.

pressdemocrat.com...

reply to post by blackthorne


Are you KIDDING ME?

He's a 13 year old boy? WHY THE HELL DO COPS NEED TO DRAW WEAPONS ON HIM?! Rifle or not, if he isn't pointing the thing at them then what is the problem?

After telling Lopez to move away from the rifle, deputies approached the unresponsive teen as he lay on the ground and handcuffed him before administering first aid and calling for medical assistance, O'Leary said.

So, you shoot him, multiple times, then you cuff him and THEN you check to see if he's alive?

Screw you guys really. WTH is the world coming to, I'm pretty much foaming at the mouth on this one.

These trigger happy police really need to be re-educated and removed from the force as the violent, criminal murderers they are.

~Tenth

If it was an airsoft weapon - there should have been a bright red tip on the barrel.

I see no mention of this nor any pictures on the article.

Police who abuse their authority and KILL civilians need to be drug out into the street and shot like the effing dogs they are.

Not all police, as there are still some good ones out there, but crap like this is disgusting. And our willingness to let it slide is equally disgusting.

Start making examples out of a few of these pigs and it will change. Cowards with a badge.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


i am actually agreeing with you. as i said, i NOT condoning the police. all i said is that the kid should have put the toy down i also said i have no idea if the kid heard them or not. the police should not have shot so quickly.

Looking at the pics of the AK styled gun in the article, there does not appear to be any orange colored tip if this were a toy. They suggest possibly a pellet or BB gun in the article as well and say that he had a toy pistol in his waistband as well.

That AK, even though not a real AK, does look very real and from a distance would imagine that in the hands of a 13 year old would seem fairly menacing. If he were truly told to drop it and did not then I am not sure I could fully blame the officers for firing. Had it been a real AK he would have easily outgunned the officers.

reply to post by blackthorne


My rage wasn't intended at you lol

Sorry, I hit reply to, I wanted to hit reply.

~Tenth

reply to post by Vasa Croe

Had it been a real AK he would have easily outgunned the officers.

Really? A 13 year old, carrying an assault rifle, who is probably untrained with it, would out gun two highly trained police officers with precision hand guns?

No.

Ever watch video of child soldiers and what not? The thing they say the most about them is that they are fearless after a while, but also a very bad shot. I get the officers wanted to keep their safety as a priority, that's fine, but how many 13 year olds do they see brandishing assault riffles and using them on people?

Actually, how many child gunmen do they see in Sonoma county?

There's no justification for this show of force towards a 13 year old boy, who wasn't threatening them. Even if he didn't put it down, there's never any mention that he was pointing it at them.

I would also think that a warning shot, you know at his feet or something, probably would have scared him enough to drop it, as opposed to shooting him MULTIPLE TIMES.

~Tenth

I have to fight the urge to comment harshly because I just don't see enough here to know what happened.

The story suggests they had 100% control in having the drop on the kid, behind cover and carefully aimed shots ready to fire. Conversely, at best, it seems to me? The kid would be a couple seconds from coming up into a position to fire and be an active threat? So..a couple seconds is a lifetime to react and not have to kill him if he didn't aim to fire. (A toy, as it happens...in the open air, in broad daylight and good visibility, I might add)

^^ That's also a 2 1/2 ton truck worth of assumption when they say so little of the specifics. I do hope this was captured on a Dash Cam or similar set up for court though. Something failed here. Period. A 13yr old boy who actually had no means of harming anyone is dead, and he shouldn't be. The question is...where was the worst failure at for causing this?

I look forward to more context in understanding what happened here, if someone catches this story as it progresses in the future.

reply to post by JayinAR


I believe police are granted rights to act as judge, jury and executioner at the point of contact. Lawsuits are after the fact and in most cases barely affect the careers of these thugs.

It must be stopped to prevent the social fabric from completely unraveling. These Demi-Gods go home at night right? They don't live in guarded compounds....yet.

reply to post by Vasa Croe


Depends on the range and the amount of separation between the officers.
Having an AK in your hands doesn't automatically make you Johnny effing Rambo.

Not only that, but they clearly did not heed rules of engagement, as taught to anyone qualified to brandish a weapon. You don't just automatically lay waste to anyone who refuses to do what you say. What's next? I am on the way to the hospital because my son has been bitten by a venomous snake so I refuse to pull over for the pigs and he takes me out with a head shot?
A car is a deadly weapon too.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


perfectly okay. i understand completely. too many suspect police shootings are happening with increasing frequency.

a decade ago, in our neighbor city, rohnert park, an asian man was in his driveway, drunk and waving a broomstick around and yelling. had a very bad day at work and was probably fighting his boss in his mind. he was NOT threatening any one, just being loud. police were called, they show up. don't know if the man had a good grasp of english or if heard the police or not, but they shot him. man's wife watched the whole thing. she was a licenced nurse and they would not let her treat her husband until the paramedics arrived. he died.

JayinAR
You don't just automatically lay waste to anyone who refuses to do what you say.

Ah, but you do, under the FOP doctrines of "I have to take CONTROL of the scene" and "I am going home at the end of my shift". Thus, you had better acquiesce to the most unlawful commands a LEO can issue, and do it with expediency, or die. Because they are in control, and you don't count.

what ever happened to "do not fire until fired upon" ? the majority of these cops are wanna be billy bad asses , yet as soon as there is any kind of a perceived threat they open fire . i wonder what kind of hazard bonus these nancy boys receive for gunning down children and the elderly.

IsawWHATtheyDID
what ever happened to "do not fire until fired upon" ?

I dont think thats actually the current cop rules.

If you have a hostlered weapon and a police man has you in his sights and tells you not to touch it, and you go for it, hes going to shoot you.

This happened in California which has very strict gun laws, especially when it comes to high powered rifles such as an AK-47.

The article does not state whether or not this rifle had an orange tip or not, and only states that it was a replica. Most likely it did not have one.

The officers repeatedly ordered this teen to drop the weapon which he did not, and going by all the recent shootings I really can't blame the officers in this one.

IsawWHATtheyDID
what ever happened to "do not fire until fired upon" ?

That went out the window after "comply or die" became unpunished. Lord Acton was right.

i wonder what kind of hazard bonus these nancy boys receive for gunning down children and the elderly.

I think you get an extra week off with pay as punishment. You also get a week off with pay if you kill the family pets, but you have to do it in front of them, and you have to remember to say "It's coming right for me" first.

reply to post by muse7


Your post is disgusting.
There is NO excuse for this. They should not have fired unless the kid presented an immediate threat. In this case it would be if the kid raised his weapon on the pigs, who already had the kid in their sights.

Its ridiculous crap like your post that allows this ish to happen.

reply to post by JayinAR


To play devil's advocate on one scenario which could have happened here and explained the response?

What if the kid was carrying his AK-Replica in 'low ready', with one hand on the grip, the other on the fore-stock and finger either on the trigger or close enough to be impossible to tell? (It's a trained thing to NOT rest a finger on the trigger in my experience. At least it took me some effort to break myself..or be broken..of that..).

In that position, the barrel will naturally track and cross over anything he's turning to look at, depending on which direction he turns.

I.E...He'd be turning to fire his weapon ..or the action would look identical,to guys looking for just that, and scared. (yeah..I'd use the word scared). After all, an AK-47 fires the equivalent of a .308 bullet. Their doors and car sheet metal might cause it to tumble and do even more damage as it goes through them...but it wouldn't slow it down to any appreciable degree.

A case to follow for more info, if ever there was one.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


In a low ready position the barrel still wouldn't point at the cops. It would point at the ground a few feet in front of the kid.

However, somehow I doubt the kid was walking down the street as if he was on a military patrol.