Insurance, seat belts, lawyers, and cops, all things we tend to consider a nuisance, that is until we need them. If your house catches on fire, you are thankful to have made your insurance payments and if your house is broken into, the red and blue lights are comforting, as opposed to nerve wracking.
We truly like to think that law enforcement are put through an extensive and rigorous training and will always serve the best interest of the community. I, for one, am not envious of the position they hold, sometimes forcing them to make split second, life or death, decisions. Of course when making those type decisions, again, we like to think they will always make the right one. Unfortunately they are human and mistakes are inevitable.
However, some mishaps are just outright unacceptable. I would contend that in the case of Andy Lopez, “not acceptable” is quite the understatement.
Andy, who was one of four children born in the United States after their parents moved here from Mexico, was a 13 year old bright, popular, and well-liked member of the marching band at Cook Middle School in Sonoma County, California. One of his classmates remember him as a boy who was, “full of smiles”. The assistant principle, Linsey Gannon, said of Andy, ?he was a very popular student, very smart, very capable?. This seems to be the overwhelming consensus of the community where the boy lived. That is what makes the circumstances surrounding Andy’s death so hard to swallow.
On Tuesday of this week, Andy was gunned down by police in what they claim to be an act of self-defense against the boys’ pellet gun, which happened to resemble an assault rifle. Many of the details have not yet been released, but from what I can gather so far, sheriffs deputies eyed Lopez in a field, of which neighbors claim is a popular gathering for kids in the area, holding what they thought to be a real AK-47.
The officers then called for back-up and exited their vehicles approximately 20-30 feet behind Andy and, using the doors of the car for protection, drew their weapons, then called out for the boy to, “drop the gun”, before opening fire. A witness claims to have heard the deputy demand Lopez to drop the gun twice and then heard 7 shots within seconds of the request, of which at least one was fatal.
Edited by SS
