Once again, police murder a black child and claim his toy looked like a real gun.
A BB gun is not a “toy”.
Regardless of whether the shooting was justified (and there’s not enough information yet to know that) the BB gun *does *look like a real gun.
The larger question is: Does this 13 year old boy the police decided to chase after resemble the robbery suspect they were actually searching for…besides the fact that he was African-American?
If the police are chasing you, and you pull out- not a phone, not a wallet, but an actual gun, albeit one that shoots bb’s, ahh, that’s not gonna help you. Do I understand correctly that this bb gun actually had a laser sight? I think I heard that. I’m not saying he deserved to be shot, I just haven’t heard enough detail about this incident. Certainly it’s too soon to jump all over the police about this one.
Come to the Tyre King. 4 tyres for the price of 3, and we’ll check your suspension too. The Tyre King will not be beaten on price.
Yes.
Lets make it a race issue, instead of lamenting a horrible thing that happened. Not enough information is out yet for you to make such horrid claims. This was a 13 year old kid. It’s not fair to try and politicize him.
I have made no horrid claims-I have asked a question.
Yes - an obvious toy.
No question that the the BB gun looked like the real thing, and the police said it had a laser scope attached.
I don’t know about this one… did he point the BB gun at them? Not sure if lethal force was necessary otherwise. All the living eyewitnesses are going to be the cops, it seems? We’ll probably never know for sure what happened then.
In the Netherlands, toy guns are outlawed. They are only allowed if not even the slightest confusion can arise if it is a real gun. Dark plastic is against the law. A red translucent water pistol is grudgingly allowed.
Hee. This is what I thought when I first saw the name but I think it might be prounounced “tie- REE”. At least I hope so. Hearing some news anchor talking about the unfortunate slaying of Tire King loses a bit of gravitas.
Once again, people are outrages that the police didn’t gamble with their own lives by assuming that whoever is pulling a gun on them might just be pulling out a toy pistol for…for…for…what reason would you have for pulling out a toy gun when police are arresting you?
A BB Gun is not a toy gun. It fires a projectile and can cause damage and injury. The laws regulating them are different from state to state.
I would be surprised if he actually pointed the gun at them. 13 seems a little young for suicide-by-cop, and unless he was seriously mentally deficient he wouldn’t think he could blast his way to freedom with a BB gun.
If he did pull it out, my guess would be that he was trying to toss it. Still a really bad idea, unfortunately.
Just to echo this. I’m in the UK. I’ve used BB (Airsoft) guns (in the company of ex-military folk) and full facial protection is required. Also, BB guns which have high muzzle velocities are subject to licensing. Being hit on bare skin by a pellet from a normal BB gun hurts!
If someone pointed that thing at me and I was armed, I’d shoot. It bears a rather striking similarity in appearance to the .40 pistol I sold about 7 years back.
Going to pass on the outrage on this one.
If you point a weapon at a cop, they will give you about one second to drop it. Then they shoot. There was outrage when a NJ cop killed a 16 year old “boy” who aimed a starter’s pistol at them. It was later determined that the pistol had been modified to fire real bullets.