L.A. Police Shoot Boy Carrying Toy Handgun

The most encouraging aspect of this story is that the boy that was shot - a 15-year-old minor whose name will likely not be released - is expected to make a full recovery from his wounds. Police were called to investigate reports of someone riding a bicycle and carrying a handgun in the Palmdale area, north of Los Angeles. Upon arriving at the scene, officers ordered the boy to drop the weapon and he instead pointed it at the officers. One of the deputies then shot the boy.

Officials have stated that the gun the boy was carrying resembled a black semi-automatic handgun and that there was no visible indication that the gun was merely a toy. Typically, toy guns will have an orange tip or some other type of indicator that makes it obvious that the toy is not a real gun.

All that said, this instance is clearly one where a 15-year-old boy, assuming that the child is mentally competent, must know better than to be carrying around a toy gun on his bicycle in public, let alone point said toy gun at police. The knee-jerk reaction will almost certainly be that the police over-reacted to the situation, but it's hard to argue with their approach in this instance. Especially when one considers the fact that the officers shot the boy but did not kill him. Whether or not that was intentional - the use of ultimately "non-deadly" force - may be impossible to discern. But at least the child will live to perhaps educate others about the dangers of playing with toy guns in public and of pointing those guns at armed police officers.