Boy carrying toy gun shot dead by police

A 13-year-old boy carrying a replica assault rifle has been shot dead by police in the US state of California, the BBC reports.
Officers in the city of Santa Rosa say they opened fire after the boy refused orders to drop the rifle, which they believed to be real.
The shooting on Tuesday is now being investigated.

It comes a day after a 12-year-old boy in Nevada shot dead a maths teacher at his school and wounded two fellow pupils before taking his own life.

In the latest incident, two sheriff’s deputies saw the teenager “with what appeared to be some type of rifle”, a news release from the
Sonoma County Sheriff’s office said. The deputies called for backup and repeatedly ordered the boy to drop the gun before firing several rounds from their handguns, police
said. The boy, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was later identified by his family as Andy Lopez.
“He was holding the weapon in his left hand. He began to turn toward his right in the direction of the deputy, and in so doing he
moved the gun toward the deputy, and the deputy’s mindset was that he was fearful he would be shot,” Lt Paul Henry of Santa Rosa
police said.

But the boy’s father, Rodrigo Lopez said the shooting made no sense. “My son lost his life. He’s not alive any more just because of the mistake of somebody.” The replica gun had belonged to a friend, he said.

The sheriff’s office said a plastic handgun had also been found in the boy’s waistband.
Witness Brian Zastrow told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat he heard seven shots.
“First, I heard a single siren and within seconds I heard seven shots go off, sounded like a nail gun,” he said.
One man who saw the events unfold said the shooting was over in an instant.
“He pulled over to the kid walking and he just opened the door and shot him, three shots,”.

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