Holy crap! Not only was there no effort made to get him to drop the toy, he didn't even know anyone was concerned about him till he was already fatally shot.
Man, when I was a kid, toy stores had whole wall sections full of realistic toy guns of every description (Remember Mattel's M-16?), many of them loose, and it was the norm for kids of all ages to grab one and fool around with it in the isles of the store.
The cops who did this need to be arrested for murdering this man. Equally to blame, however, is the police culture that's been encouraged by the establishment, i.e., that citizens are entirely expendable, and no consideration for the rights of the citizen need concern them as they seek, to the maximum possible degree, to minimize danger to themselves while carrying out their assigned duties.
It's a mindset appropriate to an active field of battle in a war zone, but completely out of place for a civilian police force operating within the borders of their own nation.
From a quick look I tend to agree. But the kid acted strangely in walking around the store whirling the thing around. It showed a lack of real world awareness to me. Adult right, or close?
But anyone who is familiar with firearms, and certainly police, and what looked like a SWAT team, should be able to ID and differentiate a firearm from an air rifle in a couple of seconds. Shoot first; determine facts later?
