You see a little boy who had potential. I see a young thug who was acting in a thuggish manner: (1) brought a gun to a rec center, (2) hid the gun in his waistband when the cop showed up, and (3) pulled the gun out of his waistband when told to raise his hands. I don't know how good the kid was with a gun, and I don't want to find out. Neither did the cop. Given how many people can reliably put a round in the black at 25 feet in under a second, plus the change that a beginner could put a round in the black (the cop or a bystander) by luck just as fast, I'm okay with the cop shooting in that situation.
Okay. But I say he was a child acting stupidly. 12-year-olds do stupid things. Unfortunately, it led to his death. However, he had a toy that would in most instances not cause a death. As for how good a shot he was, we don’t know. I’m a pretty good shot at the range. However, I’m using two hands and carefully aiming without stress. I don’t think many people can put a round in the black at 25 feet, as you say, especially with one hand in a stressful situation. Heck, many cops can’t. You can bet the cops had a good bead on him with two hands, while the kid didn’t. That was an execution.
Some of us remember times and places, too, where a boy seen with a real firearm in public was not often a problem. If it was a BB gun, why weren’t all people in the vicinity made aware of that by those near the boy? Or were they? Was the boy the only person in the vicinity, when police arrived? How were bystanders acting, when police arrived? Were they acting fearful or calm about the boy’s presence? Were they laying on the ground or running away from the boy?
Concerning such incidents in general, it’s not a problem that police can solve by themselves, IMO. For several decades, we’ve passed the laws to “stop” various kinds of violence. Has the effort worked? Is there something else that we should be doing?