Residents of Santa Rosa have been left puzzled and shocked after a13-year-old boy who was carrying a pellet gun that looked like an assault rifle was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy.
While his final autopsy won’t be ready for weeks, a preliminary autopsy report released Thursday said Andy Lopez was shot seven times including two fatal wounds in his right hip and on the right side of his chest.
According to the NY Post:
A timeline released by Santa Rosa police says those shots were fired within 10 seconds after the deputies’ first report of a suspicious person.
Police said at a news conference on Wednesday that a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy twice told the boy to drop the weapon, but he instead raised it in the deputy’s direction.
Santa Rosa police Lt. Paul Henry:
“The deputy’s mindset was that he was fearful that he was going to be shot,”
Deputies found the plastic gun in the teen’s waistband:
The pellet gun did not have an orange-tipped barrel like other replica firearms, including the plastic handgun found in the boy’s waistband, police said.
The case is being investigated.
Our prayers and condolences go out to the Lopez family.
SOURCE: NY Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
