Sam Peel
Banned
Protesters will rally Tuesday in a San Francisco suburb where a 13-year-old boy who was carrying a plastic replica of an assault rifle was shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy last week.
Authorities said that the boy, Andy Lopez Cruz, had his back to the deputy and a trainee when they ordered him twice to drop the gun. The boy turned and raised the tip of the gun, and the deputy began firing from 20 to 30 feet away, authorities said.
The deputy fired eight rounds, seven of which struck the boy, the coroner said. The gun looked like an AK-47 assault rifle but fired BBs, police in the suburb of Santa Rosa said.
The deputy, identified by sheriff’s officials as Erick Gelhaus, 48, has been on the force 24 years, including 19 as a firearms instructor. He also served 10 years in the military, including a tour in Iraq, said Lorenzo Duenas, the Sonoma County assistant sheriff.
Gelhaus has been placed on administrative leave, as has the trainee, standard procedure while investigators look into a police shooting.
