And I can easily see a startled 13 year old boy raising the rifle up and saying it is not a real gun. Officer 'jumpy' sees the raised gun - considers it an aggressive act - and shoots him dead (7 shots, if I am not mistaken).
To Serve and Protect...
Yes, this is a very disturbing story. I’d think there were a number of steps to take before you open fire. And what is this not remembering if he said he was a cop? Isn’t that second nature?
That’s probably the way it happened. I also wonder about appearances. How big or tall was this kid? Not that it justifies the shooting, but some of today’s 13 year old boys are as big as adults. But yes, I can see how the boy might swing around to face this threat with his gun inadvertently pointing up. I refuse to believe we suddenly have tons of trigger happy officers who have always been secretly nuts, or got that way on their own. Everybody’s crazy? Really?
Something with the way they are chosen or trained is very different now than 20 even 10 years ago. This is the case across this country. System wide decisions have been made to become and to remain prepared, even expecting to use lethal force. With street gangs, credibility is obtained after a certain amount of ‘kills’. One can only hope the police are not trained to observe the same credo.