There is no reason that boy would've had a non-lethal gun, unless it was to impress or scare people. Perhaps to shoot out windows or cause other mayham. On a Cleveland news site, someone posted in a discussion that several members of a very tough gang in that area, some as young as 13, had been arrested this summer.
Yesterday was a very dark, rainy and cloudy day, I'd think obstructing vision. The neighborhoods are on edge about the balance between keeping the neighborhoods safe and not being too aggressive. No parent in their right mind would let a child out of the house with a somewhat real looking gun, with no logical place to practice shooting it, under these conditions.
I find it interesting that the 15 year veteran didn’t feel the need to shoot first and ask questions later.
The rookie told the kid to raise his hands. How do we know he wasn’t doing that? His hand was on the gun. We know this because the cop said he saw the kid put the gun in his waste band. So maybe he was taking his hand away from the gun in order to raise his hands. Whatever happened to “Drop the weapon! Drop the weapon!”
If cops are that jumpy they don’t need to be cops.
But, there’s no good thing about this. At least no puppies were killed.
FLAME AWAY!
Kids sneak out with all kinds of things. They also act differently when they get together in "packs" and no adult is around.
This whole thing is just so sad. A 12 year old kid is dead and will never have the opportunity to to grow up and maybe mature into a decent adult. A rookie cop is probably done as a police officer and depending on publicity may go to prison.