[freeper12]

>>if a cop says stop, stop.

Youo really want to give cops the ability to execute you, no questions asked, for disobeying an order?

I'd bet you feel a lot different about thisif it was your kid.

Yea, the kid did stupid stuff, and set the ball in motion that led to his own death, but shooting him in the back, while he is running away? No way to justify it.

The cop should definitely be fired..if not in jail.

[BlueLancer]

"I'd bet you feel a lot different about thisif it was your kid."

Three things ...
My 12-year old wouldn't be out at this time of the night.
My 12-year old would have been taught not to steal cars.
My 12-year old would have been taught to stop when ordered to do so by the police.

So, counsel, that hypothetical doesn't mean very much to me.

[marktwain]

What nobody is mentioning is that the age of the theif is totally irrelevant here. There is no way that the police officer could have know his age before hand. He was plenty big enough to be an adult, plenty big enough to kill people.

Under the law, what is reasonable depends on what you know at the time of the incident, not what was found out afterward!

Yes, this was tragic, but it sounds like a justifiable shooting to me, given what was in the officers mind at the time.