San Diego police kill boy, 15, in school parking lot

Poor kid. Hope the officers are charged.

BB guns in america need to have clearly visible bright orange parts at the end of the barrel, not present in japan.

Was that missing(illegally removed)?

Anyone who points a gun, even a toy gun that looks like a real one, is asking to be shot. It's not new, and has long been known as "suicide by cop".

The tragedy is the impact on the family of the deceased and the police officer(s).

It's a tragedy to be sure.

"cops need not assume that everyone is armed to the teeth"

A lot of criticism is being levelled at American methods recently in terms of its de-emphasis of conflict resolution and very rapid escalation to the use of weapons. I don't understand the English system very well, but my impression is that their beat walkers and patrols do not even have guns, but they can call in very heavily armed people quickly. As the situation escalates, other tools and methods come into use.

It is 330 am. Could the police have just backed off and waited, either in or out of their car, and just continued to observe the situation? Could they have called in better armed and armored people to move in and subdue the guy over a longer term? At that hour, not seeing anyone else nearby (a school parking lot!), what is the real risk of just avoiding contact with the guy and observing him? How many decisions COULD have been made in 15 minutes? How many other outcomes COULD have been reached?

OK. I am going soft right? Why does this kid deserve an extra 15 minutes of these officers' time anyway. He pulled a gun and he got what he deserved. And there is just no other way it could have turned out. The kid made his choice and he got a bullet. Too bad. I think that is what an American would say. It is a cultural thing.

And THAT is the tragedy. We justify the death based on some imperfect person's assumption based on imperfect information that was all compiled in a moment. It is an excuse. I am surprised people are satisfied with it.

Difficult to imagine such a scenario happening in any "civilized" country - that is, one in which cops need not assume that everyone is armed to the teeth. Another notch for the NRA and their ilk.

Torrey Pines is a pretty nice area. Just kind of goes to show you that this is not economic, might not be racial. It is cultural.

Once the police got there, nobody could possibly even conceive of any other outcome than that someone would get shot. The boy certainly expected that he would be killed. Nobody really tried too hard to find any other course than to just shoot the kid. No tools or procedures were available. Guns really can solve every imaginable problem if you don't care too much about the outcomes, right? And the police can go home to their families, which is the important thing.

Wasteful expedience wins the day. The US can afford to waste whatever resources it has and everything will work out right. Other countries with far less resources have figured out how to handle confrontations like this without repeated tragedy. Oddly enough, such countries have better health care and most allow assisted suicide.

Can't blame the cops for this one. Kid sounded troubled.

Sounds like a suicide. Wanted to go out with guns blazing.