Bang...
Posted on 07/08/2014 7:08:32 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
Prosecutors said Monday they will not file criminal charges against a Northern California sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a 13-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun he mistook for an assault rifle....
Deputy Erick Gelhaus, 48, fired multiple rounds in response to what he believed was an imminent threat of death, Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced at a news conference.
'While in the lawful performance of his duty, Deputy Gelhaus was faced with a highly unpredictable and rapidly evolving situation,' Ravitch said. 'He believed honestly and reasonably that he was faced with a do-or-die dilemma.'
'While this was an absolute tragedy it was not a criminal act,' Ravitch said.
Gelhaus shot Lopez on October 22 as the teen walked near his home with the pellet gun. The deputy told investigators he believed the gun was real and opened fire out of fear for his life.
At least one witness said he heard the deputy order Lopez to drop the pellet gun before shooting, Ravitch said.
Gelhaus fired eight times, striking the eighth-grader seven times with his department-issued 9 mm handgun.
The district attorney said Gelhaus had 18 rounds in his gun and stopped shooting when he felt the threat had ended....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You’ll notice that I’m not calling for the officer’s head. I do think we need to look beyond the incident, though. Bad welfare policies, bad gun control policies, bad drug control policies, and bad border control policies have created an environment conducive to this and similar mistakes. The officer shot an unarmed kid, the unarmed kid was a junior thug pretending to be armed, the surrounding society is sick and broken in myriad ways, as a (perhaps unwitting) result of incredible stupidity and evil in government and amongst the denizens of ‘bad neighborhoods’. It’s a hideous mess.
When you are not sure if a person has a weapon which he is incidentally allowed to legally carry in California, and when you don't identify yourself as a police officer, and when you give your order from inside the police car where it can't be heard, then you shouldn't be pulling your weapon on somebody with their back turned.
“Surely the police know that kids all over California cut off those tips or are they all willingly ignorant just so they can shoot kids carrying them???”
You are a fool. The officer had seconds to determine if it was real or not. How about you put your *ss out on the street with a bunch of low life, hoodie wearing, pants around their knees, thugs (expelled from one school and sent home from the alternative school) who are wanna be gang members. You couldn’t pay me enough!
agreed
It was a toy — get over it
Was he in a marked police car and in uniform?
Like I said...why don’t you show us how you would handle it in real life, cop hater.
His hood was not up — it was down — so there was no excuse to see that it was a kid.
You need to get your facts straight.
— a marked police car and uniform that the kid could not see because he had his back turned and was walking the other direction.
and police are still required to identify themselves.
Bang...
The kid could have put the gun down and then explained later that it wasn’t real. And, he’d probably still be a live. You know... bottom line .... toy gun today.... real gun in a few years. It is what it is.
Well, I guess the deputy will be back on duty, very well rested from his long paid vacation (known to government employees as paid administrative leave).
Your hate cops so much that you are willing to side with a bunch of illegal trash rallying on his behalf. Great, your choice.
Yep.
Exactly...
There's part of the problem. Bad gun control laws, which abound in California, generate the impression that citizens carrying guns (openly or concealed) is somehow bad. That's wrong.
“It’s a hideous mess.”
Yes, and we are allowing it to become a much bigger hideous mess. We are getting more of these ‘upstanding citizens’ (most illegal) crossing the border with the help and protection of the Federal government. We are going to pay for it big time.
Main takeaway from this is that if you intentionally mislead other people into thinking your replica gun is real, there may be consequences you won’t like.
EXACTLY according to my master-plan!
I would guess there are some areas in California where citizens open carrying an ak-47 is not a good idea, and where it shouldn’t happen. We all agree that we want law abiding citizens to have guns and the existing gun laws that prevent criminals from owning and carrying to be enforced. Open carry and concealed carry is not for everyone. Just my opinion. The kid wasn’t guilty of anything... well I guess he threatened some people? Yet, who knows.... I’d guess if this cop didn’t save someone’s life (future) he at least saved someone a lot of pain and the tax payers a lot of expense.
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