In the interests of full disclosure, the BB gun in question was completely indistinguishable from a Russian Kalashnikov AK -47.
And not only did the “BB gun” look indistinguishable form a real AK - 47, it did not look like a standard, potentially legal AK-47
The AK-47 look alike BB gun had been modified by someone who had sawed the barrel off to 12 inches long to make it look exactly like a sawed off AK-47 gang banger street zip gun with a similarly illegal (under California's insane gun laws) evil “High Capacity Magazine”.
Possession of a rifle with a sawed off barrel less than 16 inches long is a violation of the National Firearms Act of 1934 and is a Federal Felony carrying a mandatory 10 year sentence in Federal Prison
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Firearms_Act
Sawing the barrel down also removes the front sights so the only real use for such a weapon is extreme close range shooting of the type you see in a gang land execution style hit.
Such AK-47s are a status symbol in California gang culture, especially in the Northern California's Mexican gangs who are running the illegal pot growing industry where they are used to protect the illegal marijuana fields .
What the officer saw when he drove up was _
A) A guy dressed in a gang style hoodie with the hood up to conceal his face(no way the officer could tell the kid was 13 because he was wearing a hoodie with the hood up)
B) Said person with hoodie up in the fashion Gang Bangers to conceal their identities when committing crimes, was openly carrying a gangster style street zip gun AK -47 with a crudely sawed off 12 inch barrel, which if the gun had been a real unregistered sawed off AK-47 would have put the guy in Club Fed for a mandatory 10 years
C) In the officers mind, the scenario above would have immediately registered in the officers mind was he was dealing with gang or drug related execution style hit or home invasion in progress.
The fact that the barrel had been sawed off the faux AK-47 suggests it was intentionally altered to look like a gang banger zip gun, especially since the removal of the front sight rendered the BB gun worthless for target practice, plinking, squirrel shooting and all the other uses boys have for BB guns.
There is also evidence to suggest that the kid was gang banger wannabe who was intentionally impersonating a gang banger with a zip gun to play “bad boy” in an areas where gang related violence a day to day occurrence.
Jeez... the gun looked like a plastic piece of crap, not real. It is not a crime to open carry a plastic weapon. There is no evidence that the boy looked or acted hostile during his walk to a friends house.
One of the two cops rolled up, open his door and shot the boy seven times in less than 10 seconds. The other cop did not fire because he did not feel threaten. I will repeat the other cop did not fire because he was not threaten.
The cop wanted to shoot to kill the second he rolled up. His mentality is I am cop and the only one allowed in this country to carry arms. I will kill anyone exercising their 2nd amendments rights. Anyone carrying a gun deserves to die.
So, the kid was a gangbanger wannabe pretending to be a tough guy and drawing down on a cop.
That's not true. Look at them side by side and the one with the steel cut off barrel and plastic stock is clearly the plastic pellet gun.
The fact that the tip was sawed off is indicative of a pellet gun with the orange safety tip sawed off to make it look real which kids often do to their orange tip toys.
Surely a professional gun expert would know this and be able to discern the difference or atleast be cautious in leaping to unwarranted conclusions.
What the officer saw when he drove up was _ A) A guy dressed in a gang style hoodie with the hood up to conceal his face(no way the officer could tell the kid was 13 because he was wearing a hoodie with the hood up)
That's not true. He was wearing a hoodie, like virtually everyone does in northern California but he had the hood down. The police admitted this.
This cop then had no excuse for not taking a few extra moments to see that this was a kid with a kid's pellet gun.
This is a lie. He was not a gangbanger. The kid was well liked and played trumpet in the school band.