13yo w/pellet gun killed by police- FBI to investigate

[EVT1]

Here's an idea- why not investigate why companies are allowed to sell pellet guns that look like an assault rifle.

www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/us/fbi-begins-inquiry-in-deputys-killing-of-13-year-old-boy.html?_r=0

www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2013/10/24/us/24shooting1.html

Don't see what there is to investigate- hard to blame the police for shooting someone holding one of these that doesn't follow a command to drop it.

[AGB]

Oct 26, 2013 11:47:44 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Here's an idea- why not investigate why companies are allowed to sell pellet guns that look like an assault rifle.

www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/us/fbi-begins-inquiry-in-deputys-killing-of-13-year-old-boy.html?_r=0

www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2013/10/24/us/24shooting1.html

Don't see what there is to investigate- hard to blame the police for shooting someone holding one of these that doesn't follow a command to drop it.

I believe investigations are common practice for LEO shootings, particularly when they result in death. It's not a matter of looking to blame the officers, but to assure that policies and procedures were indeed followed, and if the event warrants a change in them. If the officers involved hadn't felt justified to shoot, they wouldn't have. An investigation determines justification by people who were not directly involved and results in either publicly clearing those involved from any wrongdoing or providing grounds for punishment. In this case, if the facts check out, the officers will be cleared.

I didn't catch this in your link, but imo, this was the deciding factor:
"A Sonoma County sheriff's deputy twice told the boy to drop the weapon, but he instead raised it in the deputy's direction, police said at a news conference Wednesday." (link)

I doubt a pellet gun with a different look would have changed the outcome, unless that look included an orange tip.

A tragic event, no doubt. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the young man, as well as to the officers involved. It was that one moment in time that could have changed, had the officers had the information then that they have now, or if the teen had decided to follow the officers' instructions.

[Deleted]

I suppose if you tried to legislate that all non bullet guns were manufactured with certain visible tells to alert that it's a paintball or pellet gun, it wouldn't be long before people made real guns look that way so they could pretend they didn't have a lethal weapon.

Sad when this happens, but maybe the kid didn't imagine the cops were talking to him, since he was just hacking around with a semi-toy gun.