So, I just read an http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/autopsy-shows-boy-13-with-pellet-gun-was-shot-7-times, not so much in the context of the basis, I've read a couple stories of teens being shot, happens here a bit too. But the reason I'm sharing this is do you think it was right for the teen to be shot when he rose his pellet gun to the cops?

Personally, I feel the police were right to, because if you look at that pellet gun, it looks STRIKINGLY similar to a Kalashnikov nor does it have an orange ring designating it as a model. Better yet, why would a parent let their kid HAVE a pellet gun like that without a safety ring. The article also said he had one that looked like a pistol without a ring on it. Further more, he ignored their demand to drop the weapon. However, I'm curious to hear your takes on this. Do you feel this teenager was in the wrong for having done this? I mean, personally, if I see what looks very much like a Kalashnikov I would have fired if he chose to raise the gun at me instead of dropping it as he was instructed. If people just 'wait and see' in a situation, those police could have been killed had it been a real gun. I just find it weird the moment the person killed is under 18, people say 'WE NEED JUSTICE!' even if the teen is in the wrong but had it been an advlt it'd just be shrugged off.

CD, how do you feel about this article?

That happened in my backyard almost..it is not pleasant to live here sometimes..everyone is upset, but he raised a real looking gun at someone

if you raise a realistic weapon towards the police, you are unfortunately asking to get shot, especially after being ordered to drop your weapon.

from this part of the article, their sophomore's aren't smart enough to realize even real guns can look "fake"

Stupid parents, stupid kids. Probably end up suing whomever sold them the pellet gun

Shouldn't the title be "police shooting" instead of "teen shooting"? I dunno about others, but personally when I read "Teen shooting" I think about either a teenager going on a shooting spree or some sort of highschool shooting scenario (which are often one and the same), not about a police officer shooting a teenager.

There are questions that need to be answered, specifically how much time the kid had from the police ordering him to put down the gun and them shooting (assuming such an order was given) however, 7 shots seems excessive and suggests someone got a bit scared to me, though considering it was two deputies, perhaps not (3[+1] shots each).

Hard call to make. I think police do tend to jump the gun, but not having been there, nor knowing were the police were (Behind cover? Out in the open?) I really don't know what to think of this.

I'm not a fan of police. I've seen to many power tripping cops to really trust them.

Case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuK0emSpbi8

They had 6 officers on top of this guy, with mental illness, did he deserve to be punched like that? The answer is no!

It was a veteran police officer firing the only shots..but times like we live in you can't be sure what's going to happen..I would have done it too

Seriously.. in the moment when armed, in-uniform, on-duty police officers shouted to drop his weapon he had a clearly defined choice to make and he raised the gun at them? He was either suicidal or just really, really stupid. Anyone who shoves the blame on the police officer is pathetic. The boy was the victim, but he killed himself.

In retrospect, you're right. I just made the title thinking it to mean 'A teen gets shot'. The title is kind of misleading, I apologise for that.

A Similar incident Happened Near where i live, except it was the gun from a WII console and he was playing with it in the window, i would link the article but i can't find it.

The police did what they thought they had to do to protect themselves, considering the circumstances. How were they to know it was a fake gun with the way the kid acted?

What kind of an idiot walks around with a fake gun and then raises it at the police when they tell him to drop it? I hate to say it, but the kid has only himself to blame. I know he was probably confused when he heard the cops and didn't understand the seriousness of the situation, but it's no excuse for reckless behavior. The police did what they had to do. If it had been a real gun, people could have been in danger.

In the end, it's all down to the specific scenario. If it is true that the lad refused to lower his weapon and aimed at the officer, then it's frankly not surprising that he opened fire. That doesn't make the incident any less tragic, but the lad's recklessness caused this.

Police are taught to shoot until the target hits the ground, so 7 seems a good estimate of how many shots one officer could fire before the teen was completely down. It also says at the end of the article that only one officer shot.

I wouldn't necessarily say that the officer was "right" in shooting, but he wasn't wrong in doing so. Of course, this is assuming that the information in the article is accurate.

I agree with this on both counts. I mean I own an AR-15 (although my AR-15 has changed slightly) and a pellet gun seen here---> http://i413.photobucket.com/albums/pp212/sbcmarine81/WhichistherealAR-15_zps8a89c08e.jpg

and you will never guess which one's the real rifle. Having a pellet gun carries with it the same responsibility as having a real gun. If you're going to be dumb enough to point a pellet gun at a cop or a person carrying a real gun via conceal weapon's permit, then you deserve to get shot yourself, cause from a distance you don't know if the pellet gun's real or not.

Raising a replica gun at police, especially if youve been asked to drop the weapon then comply with the orders of the officers if theyve asked you to put it down or drop it then do it, this isnt the first article ive read where someone was shot because they refused to comply with the order to drop any weapon, from projectile weapons to blades to blunt weapons.

As a police officer your doing a job like many other people, the last thing you want is to be wounded, end up with a permanent injury or killed during your shift, i am also not a fan of alot of police, and for many reasons that would be too long to list here, but im always concerned when so many shots are used to take down a person, their training should teach them that a shot or shots to set locations will take a target down. They had time to stop, take in the detail, not cover him with a weapon, since their aim seemed pretty terrible. since he was carrying what they thought was an assualt rifle, fire eight shots only one striking the target, if two officers are present at least one could give the order while one got a clear aim, or its just poor disicpline and training.

And i always love media reports, the victim is always the most lovable, wonderful human being that walked this earth, ive never seen a tv report or read a newspaper article were they do not portray the victim in an overly positive light, most of this would be from descriptions from friends and family, its not detail that should be applied to an article unless the details on the persons character had researched and that information is factual and not only seen in the eyes of the relatives and freinds

Doesn't matter who you are, if you raise any weapon against a cop after they tell you to drop your weapon, they are probably going to shoot you. Now im not a big cop supporter with most cases, but when they're on the job, they don't know what kind of people they're dealing with, and a kid with a gun could be attempting to shoot them, they don't know, so they were better safe then sorry.

It's unfortunate that it was a kid that was shot, but it's kinda his fault for raising a gun to some cops when they're telling him to drop it.

It's like the people who run from cops and when they get grabbed, try to get away, then the cop beats the crap out of them and smashes their face into the ground, they then start screaming "police brutality!", when they're just doing their job.

I know if im getting chased by the cops, and I get the point where I know im caught, I am throwing myself down onto the ground, hands above my head and waiting so as not to get my ass beat, haha.

If everything in the article is to be believed, then I think it is justified.

What is important is that the deputy said the boy was raising his gun, they will have to see what witness' say about that.

My thoughts exactly. Either a police assisted suicide or the latest Darwin award winner

There's a reason replica firearm manufacturers are required to paint the tip of the barrel day-glo orange (and that is not really even enough, in my opinion). Remove that, and it's hard for anyone to tell the difference between a replica firearm and the real thing, especially at any sort of distance. Of course, raising what looks like a rifle towards a police officer after they tell you to drop what they think (and rightly so) is a weapon means that they are going to rely on their training, which says to shoot first when they feel they are in danger.

Fear the cops more than the crims.

I can understand the circumstances. Police man gotta protect himself and others. Just got to be careful when near officers and be a model citizen or else you can end up under their watchful eye.

Obviously the kid was an idiot, but american police are also trigger happy psychopaths. All the more idiotic of the kid, because pressumably he's been in america for a while and should have known better. I personally wouldn't go to america specifically because the police there are terrifying.

Well this certainly wasn't based on a radical generalized assumption.

in a situation like that police officers do have a right to defend themselves, or at least can't be blamed when the pellet gun looks so real. However, in the process of defending your self you don't need to fatally shoot some one seven times. Once in the shoulders or legs should be enough to disarm.

To me it looks like the police panicked when they saw the gun and started shooting out of fear. They probably need better training on keeping their cool and assessing dangerous situations on the fly, so that they can do their job in the capacity to disarm and arrest potential criminals rather than executing them.

From that article, the police officer was justified.

It was a life or death situation for him at the time.

What I really want to know is, why the hell did the idiot raise the weapon after being told to drop it?

That was asking for it.