To be fair, running away screaming is probably not a good idea either. Sometimes you gotta take a bad situation and just roll with it.

And they never miss a shot when you're unarmed and running away, especially if you run in a straight line.

Sorry, no sympathy.
Don't act guilty by running away.
The cop was doing his job correctly and will be cleared of any wrong doing.

You know how to fix that? Don't run away.

IF......
That's the point, they reportedly had no clue what was true when they shot beyond a kid ran away.....no guns, no active shooting, no identification who was a shooter.....nothing but a car description and a scared kid running away.....a reasonable response if you don't want to die in custody or be framed.

Doesn't your last mean cops should expect to die by the gun and quit complaining? ;-)

By that logic, anyone running away should be shot to death because they MIGHT get a gun and worse, and anyone not running should be shot to death because they MIGHT be posturing to fight.

At the time of the shooting, the police didn't know there were guns or bullet holes in the car, which could be old holes. The driver was released, which indicates to me it WASN'T used in a drive by at all, or he would be an accomplice and would have been arrested. You disagree? Those guns might be his legal guns and unfired, there's little actual info.

No, if he was running away unarmed, no rational person would ask why they didn't shoot, that's moronic. Any person can be a potential danger. We don't give cops the right to be judge, jury, and executioner on the street based on their assumptions and guesses as you suggest we should. This is America, not the Philippines.

@greatgooglymoogly -- "Lethal force is only for when someone's life is actively being threatened."

and @Mordhaus -- "You can't shoot a fleeing suspect in the back unless the officer has probable cause to believe the suspect 'poses a significant threat of death or serious bodily harm'."


A fair investigation absolutely needs to happen. BUT, it is at least possible that it was reasonable for the officer to make the judgement call that the kid was an active and significant threat of death or bodily harm to other people.

If he's running away from a car that was clearly used in a drive-by, with weapons in the car... I dunno, man. However questionable the officer's actions are, the kid getting himself into that situation requires a rather longer and even more questionable chain of life decisions.

I'm not saying that stuff is known (I haven't read or watched anything beyond the video), and again a fair investigation into the officer's actions is absolutely necessary. But at some point, I think @transmorpher makes a solid counter argument -- again, IF the stuff about him clearly having just been involved with a drive-by is true. Live by the gun, expect to die by it.

Let him run away to get a bigger gun, to get a hostage, or to harm someone else?

Given that they were in a car with weapons and bullet holes, all of those things were likely to occur. The officer did the right thing to protect the public.

Can you imagine if they didn't shoot, and an innocent bystander got killed? Everyone would be asking why they didn't shoot when they had the chance. It's a tough gig to be a cop.

The kid played with fire and got burnt.

So, you support shooting all the Bundies and the militia men that stood with them in the back....to death....right? Even if they're running away unarmed?
That wouldn't have been Obama and his Jack booted thugs murdering citizens in your mind, it would be an armed gang of criminal thugs getting what they deserve?

I don't believe that for one picosecond.....they're white.

You're trolling particularly hard recently, personal issues or just upset that Trump is failing on so many levels causing you to lash out?

Even if he had a gun in his back pocket, police shouldn't be shooting him running away. Not following police orders should not equal a death sentence. Lethal force is only for when someone's life is being actively threatened.

Not sure I've seen the exact video you mean, but I've seen several showing the reaction distance problem. That's why the video demonstrates the number 1 option, run away.

Carry a gun is inferior to run away, it is just a better option than trying to use years of hand to hand and knife fighting training versus someone with a knife.

This. Self defence instructors seem to be pretty universally agreed on step 1 in confronting someone with a knife:
1: Run away

They are also pretty universally agreed on the best way to win a knife fight if running isn't an option, bring a gun.

well at least they didn't shoot her as she was running away

"A lot of racism comes from projection. White Americans have a stereotype of black people being criminals purely because they can’t acknowledge that it was actually white people that stole them from Africa in the first place. Today, you have the spectacle of black men being gunned down by cops who, by way of mitigation, release footage to show that the victims were running away. This is what happens when you don’t understand or even acknowledge history. You end up in a situation where, when slavery is the elephant in the room in your relationship with African Americans, you think it’s OK to say that you killed one of them because he was trying to escape."

Frankie Boyle