Funnier still: The kid thinks its all a big joke.

Shoot first, dammit!

"Had we done it it would have clearly been a justifiable shooting.... but tragic," said Manning.

Only if they'd missed....

Are they sure it wasn't Michael Jackson?

Hey what do you know, my Boobiesed link.

I couldn't believe this story when I saw it on the news.

But everyone knows that assault rifles are the way to go when dealing with small, gangly, teenage intruders.

Best part about it: "dumbasskids" in the URL.

Hold on - these are normal street cops - With Assult Rifles?!?!

The most our local PD has (except for SWAT and stuff like that) is a shotgun in each car. And this is Fairfax County - one of the biggest in Virginia

I think it is funny that the cops, with all their guns, couldn't scare that kid. They had to sit him down and explain the situation to him over and over, stressing the danger, it barely sank in. You can call him a dumbass for risking his life but I just like to see someone not get intimidated by the cops, at least when they weren't breaking the law to begin with.

Actually, i did this once.
Not exactly... but I was sneaking around somewhere in with some friends, all wearing ski masks and all in black, as part of an elaborate practical joke. Turns out the cops were there on an unrelated terrorist warning, and yes they had assualt rifles.

Thankfully, Pennsylvania state troopers cant shoot for damn

Kudos to the cops for not shooting first, but damn, this kid was really asking for it. Someone should write his name down - I'm guessing he's gonna be appearing as the subject of a "Darwin" thread someday.

Kudos to the police of this county for not screwing around when it comes to armament. I've fired both handguns and rifles, and let me tell you, you would definitely rather have the rifle than the handgun in a firefight. You get much better accuracy and a larger magazine.

The article is kind of misleading. They describe the AR-15 as an "assault rifle". While that may technically be accurate, it's much more realistic to call it a rifle. Cops, for the most part, only use semi-automatic rifles. Burst or automatic might be useful in war situations, but out on the streets, where cops work, risk of collateral damage is high, and you need to control every shot.

puts his hand in his back pocket and starts up his car, durring a standoff! cripes! are we going to discover he was on drugs at the time? cops should have shot him

Too bad they didn't shoot him in the 'nads with one of those beanbag guns... maybe that'd get his attention.

Any cop who actually popped a cop on this moron should have been awarded a Darwin medal.

/two in the chest and one in the head next time, boys.

Putting his hand in his pocket to start the car is where I was hoping the story would have a turn for the better. But the kid is still alive :(

Are you threatening me???

/rant mode on

Seriously, why didn't they just nail him with a bean bag round. Why does everything with police have to be lethal. Its about 15 (with level III body armor) to 1, unles that kid is Rambo I think they can go a little easy.

Second, it is prety obvious when a gun is a CO2 pistol. It has the little tightening screw for the CO2 cartrage that even Stevie Wonder couldn't miss. Even If it was modified, any competent person with a basic understanding of guns could take a close look with binoculars and look at the damm thing and see it was not real.

Third, why would anybody arm themselves with a baseball bat AND a gun. Most gangbangers usualy have a knife as secondary.

Fourth if that tard officer had a scope on hir rifle he could have done the above and LOOK at the gun.

Fifth, the .223 (5.56 NATO) is not the king of rifle rounds. It is unlikley it would have done that dammage unless they where using V-MAX bullets. FYI most poliece use FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) bullets because they can penatrate objects(like doors, walls, and the like). It would have made a big hole and a large temporary cavity, but not had time to pitch and yaw and do real dammage. Again, in the right spot (chest) it can be lethal, but compared to a .308 Winchester (7.62 NATO) round it is like comparing a bottle rocket to a Space Shuttle. I am NOT trying to make being shot seem like a minor issue, but really this officer is clearly using scare tactics on this kid. A .223 is illegal in manny states for DEER hunting for crying out loud.

/rant mode off

They bring in assault riffles for a retard teenager, I wonder what they use for drug busts, tanks and rocket launchers?

crosshair

pd's around the country are starting to switch to frangibles; bullets designed specifically NOT to go thru inanimate objects/a body and hit a bystander. soon as they hit something hard, they disintegrate. granted, nothing of that sort is available in 5.56 and prolly wont be for a while, just wanted to argue. :)

and WTF, lil 16-year old shiat has a fsckin remote starter on his car?

spoiled jagoff.

Crosshair

I'll agree on the beanbag, if the kid had a sword or something. But I doubt most cops respond to an "armed intruder" call with a beanbag gun.

But I remember in the 70s you could buy spring-loaded BB pistols that looked very realistically like a more serious gun. I had one. If anyone waved that at a cop I'd expect them to be shot. Cops or anyone else cannot "err on the side of caution" and die if the kid is serious.

If you have a gun (or replica) in hand, and see a cop, and don't drop it immedialtely, expect to be shot. It's that simple.

-Zippy

But after the Columbine massacre and dozens of other school shootings

Why, why, why, why do the police continue to bring up incidents that happened almost 5 years ago?

Today is February 29,2004. Columbine happened April 20, 1999.
The "dozens" of other shootings are spread out over ~12 years, each happening in a different location by 1 or 2, in a few cases 3 teens.

School shootings are so rare that the secret service cannot come up with any concrete profile of a shooter, because the shooters were literally one in a million.

I wonder if it occure to the police and their spokesmouths that if "Columbine like" shootings were common enough to justify extreme reactions like this, the police wouldn't have to continue digging up Columbine to justify every insane overreaction they have.

Sorry, replace "expect them to be shot" with "expect to be shot"

pedrop357

I'll agree that the "dozens of other school shootings" quote was a little bit much..

But, like I said, I don't see anything extreme in the reaction, quite the contrary.

I'm amazed the kid was not shot dead. Doesn't matter if the gun is made out of paper..drop it and raise your hands.
Game or no game, sort it out later.

Crosshair

Second, it is prety obvious when a gun is a CO2 pistol.

Must disagree with you here. I have two CO2 pistols, a Baretta and a Walther CP99 (I think). These look quite real. The tightening screw used to pierce the CO2 bottle is normally concealed in the butt of the gun. With the Baretta you clip the side cover of the butt back on after inserting the CO2 bottle. With the Walther the CO2 bottle is in a separate housing which slides into the butt from the bottom (like a clip in a real pistol).

Have a look here: www.uttings.com

"The article is kind of misleading. They describe the AR-15 as an "assault rifle". While that may technically be accurate, it's much more realistic to call it a rifle. ."

Actually, its technically NOT accurate. Assault rifle implies full auto capability according to the historical and technical definition. Certain politicians have applied "assault rifle", to any gun they want to ban.

LordGreyBoots: Actually I think it implies selective fire capability, meaning a weapon with burst and semi-auto count as an assault rifle even without automatic (some varidents of the m16 for instance). However I could be wrong.

What really got me was this...

"The safety (on my AR 15 assault rifle) was off, my finger was on the trigger and I had my scope on his chest," Whoever said that should be fired.

For one he shouldn't of had his finger on the trigger unless he was going to fire, which it says he didn't. Also the ar-15 isn't an assault rifle, as it is semi-auto only. If it's not it's usually not called the ar-15.

I think it implies selective fire capability

Actually, there's no real definition of the term "assault rifle". The government places restrictions on rifles that have a number of certain (mostly cosmetic) parts and features, and some weapons that fall into this class may be referred to as "assault rifles", but in reality the term has no meaning except to scare people into thinking the rifle will somehow do more damage than another type of gun.

Also, about the finger on the trigger rule: Yes, you're not supposed to put your finger on the trigger until you're ready to shoot. However, ready to shoot means:

1) Target identified
2) Area behind target identified
3) Target is not something you're not willing to destroy

In this case, the officer was quite ready to shoot the teenager. You might say he shouldn't have his finger on the trigger until the moment he pulls it, except that might screw up his aim and cause him to miss if he needs to react suddenly.

I was doing some computer cabling for a guy who recently renovated a small office building. Part of the job involved crawling in the crawl space under the building. Apparently someone saw me crawl under there with a tie-wrap gun and called the cops. I had a welcoming committee when I crawled back out. Probably the closest I ever came to being shot.

I'm not sticking up for the cops at all, because some of their actions are questionable sometimes.

This time it wasn't. This kid was either high, retarded or both. If he was carrying a handgun I'd skip the non-lethals too, because I am not psychic therefore unable to determine whether he is serious or not.

This kid is lucky he's not dead.

GuidoDelConfuso

You are thinking Assault Weapon the term the feds and media cooked up. Easy enough to get them mixed up.

I stand corected on the tightening screw. Every CO2 pistol I havehandled had a visable srew but it seems that that is not always the case.

I was not aware that police departments ehere using fragmenting bullets. Thank for the info, I'll have to do some reading up. Usualy the point of the FMJ bullets was to have the firepower to nail a guy who was in a car or home. Handgun bullets can't go through walls very well and sometimes you just need that firepower.

FMJ is used mostly by military, police prefer ammo with less penetration to prevent hitting innocent bystanders.

Crosshair

Its about 15 (with level III body armor) to 1, unles that kid is Rambo I think they can go a little easy.

So the kid shoots 1 cop and the other 14 can still shoot the kid, right? I'm sure the 1 dead cop's family would consider that a worthwhile sacrifice

Why can't they use a bean-bag round?

Because if the kid is on drugs and it's a real gun, he will very likely shoot you or somebody else.


Anyway, shiat like this is why it should be illegal for anybody under 18 to buy airsoft.

Question for all of you people who say what if he shoots a cop.

How many gang members or cokeheads do you know that go to the firing range? How manny of those people can hit ANYTHING beyond 2 feet. Besides, if the kid did raise the gun that trigger happy officer would have poped him before anything would have happened. Shure he MIGHT hit a cop IF he got a round off and it DID happen to not hit him/penatrate the vest. But the chances are very slim.

The chances are much better than he misses the cop, and the round goes into a nearby house and hits a toddler.

Funny how everyone second guesses the cops but won't grow a set of nads and go do the job themselves. Since you know the job so well, get out there and do it. Show them all how it is done.

That said, let's say the kid just murdered everyone in the house and had a real gun that he painted kooter pink. Corporal trigger finger that has you so worked up would probably be shot. I doubt he could have dropped the kid without getting shot, safety off, or whatever. Bullet resistant vests don't cover the head.

Less lethal weapons aren't the cure-all, do-all weapons. They have a limited range and limited accuracy, and sometimes, a limited effect. In a deadly force situation, if a cop makes make a mistake, he can't hit reset on his friggin x-box like all of you smart ones can. A bad decision gets a shiny new zippered black body bag and a toe tag.

Officer restraint is the only thing that saved that kid.

/quarterback

"...I think he kind of swallowed sort of a gulp and it kind of dawned on him that maybe this in fact was pretty stupid," said Manning.

Y'reckon?

Why'd the kid reach into his pocket and start up his car remotely? Seriously, why do that? Did he think the cops were a joke? maybe he was trying to attempt suicide by cop.

Whether you believe the cops over reacted or not, if you see people with guns trained on you, shouldn't you do whatever they say no matter how "right" you may be.