http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio.../19471925/


ated Press 35 minutes ago
CLEVELAND (AP) — A Cleveland officer was less than 10 feet away when he fatally shot a 12-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun near a playground, and video of the shooting is clear about what happened, police said Monday.
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Sounds like a dumb ass kid to me.

Quote:The boy did not make any verbal threats, but grabbed the replica handgun after being told to raise his hands, Tomba said.

Police Chief Calvin Williams said the "airsoft"-type BB gun was indistinguishable from a real semi-automatic pistol.

Oh boy.. Fit and his racism thread of the day.

Strap in boys.

Fit needs to ride around with police for a month or so. He might get some insight on what things are like for them.

Parents and Teachers fail to educate these Kids that You don't carry Guns real or fake and point Them at people and really drive home to never pull a gun real or fake towards a police officer. This absolutely didn't have to happen. Kids mostly respect Their parents teachings.

When you shake around a gun towards a police officer you're going to get shot. Obviously not a very smart kid.

You never point a gun (or a fake gun) at anything you don't plan on really shooting.. cause bad things happen otherwise.

That being said, I thought those BB guns were supposed to have bright labels on them to make sure they could be idenified?

Horrible for the kid and his family. Almost as bad for the cop and his family. How would YOU feel if you shot someone, thinking your life was at risk and it turned out to be a BB gun? He's alive, but his life is ruined. I'd take it over death, but it's certainly not 'good'.

As to the markings, yeah... I thought so too... bright orange.

We can be mad at the cops and with SOME reason, but the REAL issue is the criminals who put cops on such an edge. Not this kid.... but the 'generic' criminal that cop so obviously feared.

Cops generally have good reason to be on edge... and kids like this (and the cop) sometimes pay the price.

News reports say specifically that the bright orange warning tip had been removed.

(11-24-2014 03:15 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote:  You never point a gun (or a fake gun) at anything you don't plan on really shooting.. cause bad things happen otherwise.

That being said, I thought those BB guns were supposed to have bright labels on them to make sure they could be idenified?

They do, but it's common practice for people who use these airsoft guns in "battle" to either paint over or remove the orange tips. The orange tip had been removed from the gun the kid had in this case.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf...cart_river

Quote:Tamir was holding an airsoft-type gun that had its orange safety cap removed when the officer shot him Saturday, according to police.

Oh yeah, it's also a common practice for street thugs to do the same. Can't have that armed robbery victim knowing that roscoe ain't real.

as I understand it, there is some truth to that.

Rob someone with a real gun, it's one offense...
Rob someone with a fake one that looks real, it's another, lesser offense in some states.

Not saying this kid did that. Obviously no clue.

I think this probably could have been prevented.

It's a tragedy either way but from the 911 call info it probably could have been handled in a different manner.

(11-24-2014 03:51 PM)maximus Wrote:  I think this probably could have been prevented.

It's a tragedy either way but from the 911 call info it probably could have been handled in a different manner.

Easy to say when you aren't the one with seconds to decide if the gun pointed at you is real or not.

(11-24-2014 03:55 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(11-24-2014 03:51 PM)maximus Wrote:  I think this probably could have been prevented.

It's a tragedy either way but from the 911 call info it probably could have been handled in a different manner.

Easy to say when you aren't the one with seconds to decide if the gun pointed at you is real or not.

I'm saying probably been prevented.
I'm interested in seeing the report of what actually happened.

(11-24-2014 02:56 PM)gdunn Wrote:  Oh boy.. Fit and his racism thread of the day.

Strap in boys.

Racism? What on earth are you talking about?

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I don't like how the press catches onto the fact that the 911 caller says it's probably fake, but then ignore that they say 'scared me to death'... and then 'I don't know if it's real or not'.

That has nothing to do with the actions of the cop or the kid, but it goes to trying to CREATE an issue rather than report one.

Rule number one of gun safety is to ALWAYS assume that the gun is loaded. I'd say that rule number two is that if there is ANY doubt whatsoever, to assume that it is real. That would apply to a cop as well as someone being held at gunpoint. If you're 100% sure, then fine... but if not...

Now that may or may not make any difference to the outcome... I obviously haven't seen the tape... but a 'reasonable person' is going to assume that a gun is real unless there is PROOF POSITIVE that it isn't.

Never. . .NEVVVVVVVVVVER reach for something when a cop is in front of you unless he tells you to do so. Learned that from a very young age.

I read this earlier, what an effing tragedy. BUT, we had a spate of Air Soft popularity in this hood back when they first came out, 5-6 years ago. My son wanted one, ALL his Buds had one and they had massive 10 on 10 battles and stuff all over the backyards in our 5 adjoining streets cud-de-sacs etc. I'm sure it was a damn ball.

But, in talking with the Mom nest door one afternoon I expressed my concern over this very, exact, specific thing. All it would take is one person passing through that doesn't know these kids, one sketch mom or dad with a paranoia or "get off my lawn" problem and any of these kids could have this very thing happen. I said no, and expressed my mild concern to a few others when it came up and many kind of said, You know? Yea, this day and age with all the school stuff going on and people on edge all over, maybe this isn't such a good idea.

That and enough of the Dads quickly got sick of having 10 bazillion little orange balls in their yards when they mowed. Fortunately the fad passed pretty quickly as the kids moved on to blowing up mailboxes and stuff...