SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA // A 13-year-old California boy carrying a replica of an assault rifle to a friend’s house was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy who believed the gun was real, authorities said.
The incident took place in Santa Rosa, Northern California, on Tuesday, a day after a 12-year-old boy killed a teacher at a Nevada middle school with a gun he also used to take his own life.
The Santa Rosa boy’s father said his son, Andy Lopez Cruz, a middle schooler who played the saxophone and liked basketball and boxing, was shot while on his way to a friend’s house with a pellet gun left at the family home over the weekend.
“It’s not right what they did to my son,” said the father, Rodrigo Lopez, as he sat with friends and family on Wednesday outside Santa Rosa City Hall in a quiet protest.
Lieutenant Paul Henry, who is investigating the incident for the Santa Rosa Police Department, said two Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies had been patrolling a street near the boy’s home on Tuesday when they saw him walking with what appeared to be an assault weapon in his left hand.
One of the deputies, who did not immediately realise that the person he was seeing from behind was a child, shouted twice: “Put down the gun,” according to Lt Henry and a police statement.
“The subject turned toward the deputies, and as he was doing that the barrel of the weapon was rising toward the deputies,” Lt Henry said. The deputy then fired rounds, killing the boy.
The incident took place against a backdrop of growing concern about officer-involved shootings in California, where a spate of such incidents in the city of Anaheim, south-east of Los Angeles, prompted protests in 2012. Concern over seven fatal officer-involved shootings in three years in Sonoma County prompted calls in 2000 for a civilian review board, but none was established.
Displaying a real AK-47 next to the plastic one recovered from the scene, Lt Henry pointed out the similarities in their appearances. The pellet gun was shorter, and lacked a bright orange piece meant to mark it as a toy.
Pellet guns, which use compressed air or other gases to fire pellets or spherical balls, are sometimes made to resemble assault weapons. Police also found a plastic handgun tucked into the boy’s trousers.
“It’s a tragic event,” Lt Henry said. “It’s tragic for the family, the community and the deputies.”
* Reuters
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Company%20Profile
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THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Titan Sports Academy:
Programmes: Judo, wrestling, kick-boxing, muay thai, taekwondo and various summer camps
Location: Inside Abu Dhabi City Golf Club, Al Mushrif, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Telephone: 971 50 220 0326
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
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Company%20Profile
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Abu Dhabi racecard
5pm: Maiden (Purebred Arabians); Dh80,000; 1,400m.
5.30pm: Maiden (PA); Dh80,00; 1,400m.
6pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (PA); Group 3; Dh500,000; 1,600m.
6.30pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan National Day Cup (Thoroughbred); Listed; Dh380,000; 1,600m
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup for Private Owners Handicap (PA); Dh70,000; 1,400m.
7.30pm: Handicap (PA); Dh80,000; 1,600m
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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