But this never happens in New York!

Could you give us a link though, Charles?

Like the kid with the cellphone... except worse.

The gun was in the hairbrush.

i assume "Khiel" is fancy spelling for "Kyle".

"Lord have mercy"...

...cause the police have none.

Why can't police use rubber bullets unless it's some kind of sniper situation?

@4 - OK . . .

They'd rather dispose of some of the trash so they don't have to take it all back to the good 'ol jailhouse. Glock glock!

The best cops in the book shoot first and don't ask any questions.

You're reporting on a tragic situation with a stupid pun for a headline? Scrape up some class, Mudede. I'm quickly losing what little respect I had left for you.

Yeah, really. After combing this post for sincerity, I'm convinced that Mudede has brushed it off. He has no personal care in the matter.

I think Charles's stupid pun is brilliant.

Irena - you have me bristling over your post.

It was a reach.

(mine was a reach - not yours!)

Hey, cut the cops some slack - he could have administered a painful and humiliating spanking with a brush like that!

While it may be true all he had was a brush, HIS MOTHER did call 911 and he could be heard in the background yelling about the gun he had. His mother said "you heard it from his mouth" in response to a question about whether there was a gun involved. Let's not jump to conclusions people. The person in this story on CNN says "confirm he has a gun first". Well, if someone says they have a gun, and there's an object under his shirt, that's confirmation enough for me. Because ya know what? Guns can shoot through shirts! He's dead because HE WAS an idiot, not because the cops are idiots.

Sorry, here's the link to the story on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/13/ny.shooting/index.html

Steve @15: Yeah, but "Price of Stupidity" was already taken.

Come on, people give the cops a freakin break. Yeah it sucks that a person was shot... but police procedure says that they tell the suspect to put his hands up and drop any objects he is holding. Yes they mistook the hairbrush for a gun but he was yelling about the gun he had... the first rule of self-defense is if a person doesn't comply and threatens violence (aka "I have a gun, I will use it!") you either have to put them into submission or kill them. Because if that person won't calm down, it's either you or them, hairbrush or no.

20 bullets is a whole lotta submission, though, you gotta admit. How about one in the leg to start?

Yeah, people! Come on, let's give the cops a break!

Just like everyone gave this cop a break... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21769873/

Lord knows the police are never wrong.

There should be some rationale taking place between one shot and 20 shots. WTF is wrong with them? The whole "he said he had a gun" thing might be dismissable if this was the first time NYPD mistakened some benign personal item for an assault weapon. Even I know it wouldn't take 20 gunshots to make a person drop their weapon, and I haven't been highly trained. Then again, maybe there's something in NYPD police academy that explains why it takes 20 bullets to disarm a suspect.

It isn't about disarming, sad to say. I am not a police officer, but I train in a martial art, and while I'm taught to break arms and twist legs, our instructor makes it clear that even when you injury a person it is possible that person might not stop attacking. One of my other instructors nearly got banged up by a guy high on meth, and he battered the guy so hard in the knees the guy had to have two knee replacement surgies, and THEN he submitted. It's a tough judgement call (is it a gun or a brush? I or one of my fellow peers will probably get shot if I'm wrong,) and until you've been in that situation I think it's awfully high and mighty to be throwing stones.

It looks much more threatening that the guy with the wallet.

"than" than the guy with the wallet.

Authorities were responding to a 9-1-1 call his mother made about a "family dispute with a gun," police said.

In the background of the call, played at a news conference Tuesday, 18-year-old Khiel Coppin can be heard saying, "I've got a gun, I've got a gun," New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told CNN.

The teen put an object under his shirt and told his mother around the time she phoned 9-1-1 that he was going to say he had a gun, said New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

The teen told her, " 'I'm prepared to die,' " Kelly told reporters.

When authorities arrived at the Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, the teenager had something stuffed under his shirt and several times showed a knife to police. "Shoot me, kill me," he shouted, according to Kelly. "Come get me. I have a gun. Let's do this."

Coppin ignored repeated commands to stop and get on the ground. Witnesses said the teen appeared to be holding an object underneath his shirt and pointed it at the officers. Coppin continued to approach officers, as they ordered him to stop, said Kelly.

Twenty shots were fired; Coppin was struck eight times, Kelly said.

"This was a terrible tragedy for Khiel's family, no doubt about it," said Kelly. But the commissioner stressed that officers reasonably believed they were about to receive fire.

Kelly said the teen's mother reported he had not taken his anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication.

Police have not recovered a gun and do not believe that Coppin was armed, Kelly said.

A reporter asked Kelly if it's possible the young man was goading police to shoot him, a phenomenon known commonly in law enforcement circles as suicide-by-cop.

"That's certainly a possibility," said Kelly.

Apparently Amadou Diallo was holding up a wallet before the NYPD pumped 41 bullets into him. I forget how many bullets NYPD plainclothesmen pumped into the bridegroom trying desperately to flee the site of his bachelor party. If you're black, stay back.

Cops - the only people exempt from prosecution for assisted suicide.
(or anything else these days)

@26 The police messed me up and I'm not black, (and I was innocent and cooperative too).

Police misconduct is an issue that affects people from all walks of life. When anyone suggests otherwise it only makes it easier for the police to get away with it.

@27 The police messed me up and I'm not black, (and I was innocent and cooperative too).

One big difference between you and those black guys: you're still alive.

@28

True, but that almost wasn't the case.

While the police were "teaching me a lesson" by refusing to let me get medical treatment I was going into shock from a slow brain hemmorage.

I'm probably alive more by luck than anything. But I still think it's counterproductive for anyone to suggest that police misconduct only affects minorities.