Police shoot, kill teen carrying replica assault rifle
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — A Northern California community is anguished over the fatal police shooting of a popular, 13-year-old boy who had been carrying a replica gun that looked like an assault rifle.
Sonoma County sheriff ’s deputies had repeatedly asked the boy, Andy Lopez, to drop the weapon, but instead he raised it in their direction, police said.
Only after the shooting did deputies realize the gun was a replica that looked strikingly similar to a real AK-47 assault rifle.
Residents of Santa Rosa, a suburban town of roughly 170,000 people northwest of San Francisco in California’s wine country, were shaken by the boy’s death Tuesday.
While some in the community were questioning why police decided to fire on such a young person, the shooting coincided with two separate murders of U.S. school teachers this week linked to students of similar ages. On Monday in the neighbouring state of Nevada, a middle school teacher was allegedly shot by a 12-year-old student. And on Tuesday, prosecutors in Massachusetts say a 14-year-old student killed a math teacher.
In Santa Rosa, hundreds marched on Wednesday night to remember Lopez and protest the shooting of the teen, chanting “We need justice,” as they questioned how the deputy mistook a pellet gun for an assault rifle. The marchers went to the site at the edge of a field where the boy was shot. Community members had left candles, teddy bears and flowers there.
Andy, an eighth-grade student was described as a bright and popular student, liked by many in his community. Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas said the shooting was a “tragedy” and that he would do everything he could to ensure the investigation was thorough and transparent.