It’s a shame those parents raised a thug kid who liked intimidating others. As for the police, it’s a shame they have to live with the knowledge that they killed a thug kid who wasn’t actually an immediate danger. They had no way of knowing the kid wasn’t a threat until after the fact though. I own a 1911 .45 ACP that is almost identical in appearance to the “toy” the kid was waving around, and I would not have noticed the extremely subtle differences.
It’s a shame the kid hid the toy as the police drove up, and even worse that he behaved stupidly when confronted. It’s a shame the kid when told to “freeze” instead pulled the toy from his waistband. It’s a shame that a .45 ACP responds at 900 fps, which didn’t give the police a sense that they could evaluate the situation at their leisure.
All these things are unfortunate, but they do not in any way justify prosecuting the police for making a completely reasonable decision in a situation in which a reasonable person would have believed that innocent lives were in danger.
It’s a shame that the police either had poor training or violated their training by pulling up within a few FEET of a reported possibly armed individual. The officer driving put his partner in a virtual no-win situation by reducing officer reaction time to less than 5 seconds. The driver should have been terminated on the spot. The officer that fired the fatal shots is most likely done in law enforcement no matter what the legal outcome is. In reality the officer that fired was justified in shooting only because of the position his partner placed him in.....