PD Editorial: Similar encounter to Andy Lopez, different outcome — thankfully

The comparisons are easy to make.

A teenager is out on a neighbor street with a pellet gun that looks real. There is no orange tip as required for such toys. Officers encounter the young man and order him to drop the weapon. Shots are fired.

It all happens in less than a minute.

Only this time, the outcome is different. We can all be grateful for that.

In his case, the young man was shot in the foot in what police say was an attempt by the teen to end his life - suicide by cop. But the young man’s injuries are not life-threatening.

A previous incident, one that occurred in October 2013 near southwest Santa Rosa, ended with the death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez, a tragic shooting that shook the community to its core.

What was the difference? It’s hard to say. The facts are not all in.

According to police, this times the young man involved, who has not been identified, was the one who dialed 911 and reported that there was a man with a gun near Coffey Park in northwest Santa Rosa. He had a suicide note in his pocket and was looking to have his life cut short. That alone is a tragedy.

According to Lt. Mike Lazzarini of the Santa Rosa Police Department, the boy initially got down on his hands and knees when directed to by an officer, but then “he got right back up with the gun in his hand, pointing it at the officer.”

Lazzarini says it’s unlikely that the officer was intending to shoot the young man just to wound him. That’s understandable. It was dark. The pistol-like airsoft BB gun in his hand looked like the real deal. Whatever happened in those moments, the community can be thankful that all of those involved in this confrontation at 11:43 p.m. on Monday are still alive. We can also be grateful that the officer was not forced to end the life of a child.

There’s one more similarity about these incidents. They both underscore the daily challenges faced by those in uniform. Reasonable people can disagree on what circumstances warrant a lethal response by an officer. But most should agree that being a police officer is a hard job, one that requires split-second life-or-death decisions - decisions that are sometimes forced on them by those more focused on death than life.

And sometimes the best you can hope for is an encounter that ends like this one.