Los Angeles, California – A police officer accidentally shot a 15-year-old child after he saw someone else pointing a toy gun. The boy that was injured was not the person holding toy gun and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The police then detained the group of children that were present, and blamed the entire situation on them.

Speaking to the media this week, Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Cmdr. Andrew Smith denied any responsibility on the part of the police, but instead blamed the children who were just playing with a toy gun.


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The names of the officers and the victim have yet to be released to the media.

Police have been extremely aggressive with children playing with guns in the last year. In the high profile case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio, he was shot and left for dead, and his sister was put in handcuffs.

Children are being treated like criminals for playing with toys, and police are given a free pass to open fire on people. The chance that a child is going to fire a real gun at a police officer is minuscule compared to the chance that they are playing with a toy gun.

In a ruling issued February 5 in the civil case, Judge James A. Soto awarded Castro-Romo nearly $500,000 in damages and said Canales lacked credibility.

Gunfire hit Jesus Castro-Romo of Nogales, Sonora, in the stomach on November 16, 2010, after he was caught crossing illegally from Mexico into the Arizona desert.

Former agent Abel Canales did not face criminal charges after the shooting was deemed justified by Colorado prosecutors, who reviewed the case because federal prosecutors in Arizona had a conflict of interest.

In a ruling issued February 5 in the civil case, Judge James A. Soto awarded Castro-Romo nearly $500,000 in damages and said Canales lacked credibility.

“Canales was given every opportunity to describe in detail the encounter with Castro — with counsel present — the day after the shooting occurred,” Soto wrote. “Then, after significant time had passed and in preparation for trial, details of his testimony changed and new details were added.”

Mark Pestal, the public defender assigned to the civil case, said Canales was interviewed about the shooting one day after it happened even though it’s recommended practice to give law enforcement officers a few days to regroup.


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Canales told investigators that Castro-Romo picked up a rock but then dropped it when ordered to do so. Canales believes Castro-Romo then made a motion indicating he was going to pick up the rock again, but the agent did not actually see Castro-Romo with a rock in his hand, according to a letter from the US attorney’s office in Arizona.

An Allegheny County sheriff's deputy had cocaine in his system when he fired at least one of the seven shots that struck and killed Leslie Sapp as members of a U.S. Marshals task force attempted to arrest him Jan. 6 at his home.

The deceased suspect was wanted on charges that he raped a young girl.

But now it is the sheriff's deputy, Richard Dwyer, 44, who could face manslaughter charges if investigators determine that the cocaine in his system at the time of his fatal shooting of a suspect was enough to impair his cognitive abilities, TribLive.com is reporting.

"If an officer is under the influence of drugs and it affects his cognitive skills, and somehow this person is dead because he didn't act properly because of the drugs, that could be involuntary manslaughter," District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. told the website Wednesday.

However, Zappala cautioned that it is unclear how much cocaine was in Dwyer's system or whether he was impaired when he fired his gun.

Many in this small town on Colorado's southeastern plains wave at police driving by and sometimes stop to give officers crime tips. People under arrest are also neighbors an officer could run into later in the grocery store, so Chief Frank Gallegos encourages his eight-person force to treat suspects with respect.

So when a police officer on the job for five months stopped a 27-year-old resident skateboarding along the main drag, followed him to his home and shot him dead last fall, Rocky Ford's residents were shocked and angry.

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Officer James Ashby was charged with second-degree, non-premeditated murder after an investigation led by law enforcement from surrounding communities and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. With no internal affairs unit, let alone any detectives, Rocky Ford police turned to the team of specialists.

Ashby is the first Colorado police officer to face charges for an on-duty shooting in more than 20 years. He was set to enter a plea on Thursday in a court in the Otero County seat of La Junta.

Rookie NYPD officer Peter Liang, 27, was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in the November death of 28-year-old Akai Gurley. He’s facing charges of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and official misconduct.

Liang was released Wednesday on his own recognizance and is awaiting trial. His next court appearance is May 14. If convicted of second-degree manslaughter, the top charge, Liang could face up to 15 years in prison.

As video cameras begin to sweep post-Ferguson policing — and policymakers grapple with whether to bar the public from watching the images — one such recording sits at the heart of a new lawsuit.

It shows St. Louis police making an arrest that would later be called abusive, and catches an apparently surprised officer yelling, in part, “Everybody hold up. We’re red right now!” before she abruptly shuts off the camera.

As video cameras begin to sweep post-Ferguson policing — and policymakers grapple with whether to bar the public from watching the images — one such recording sits at the heart of a new lawsuit.

It shows St. Louis police making an arrest that would later be called abusive, and catches an apparently surprised officer yelling, in part, “Everybody hold up. We’re red right now!” before she abruptly shuts off the camera.