It's just the price of "freedom."

Californian police have shot dead a 13-year-old boy who was carrying a
pellet gun that looked like an assault rifle, police and media reports
said.

The child, identified as Andy Lopez and described in media reports as
popular in his school, was walking down a street on Tuesday when
sheriff’s deputies saw him carrying what appeared to be a rifle.

They ordered him to drop it and “and at some point immediately
thereafter, the deputies fired several rounds from their handguns at
the subject striking him several times,” according to a statement from
the Sonoma county sheriff’s office.

“Once the scene was secured deputies learned that the rifle was a
replica of an assault weapon.”

Local media reported the victim was 13-years-old. Police did not
confirm this but hinted at his youth in a statement of condolence.

“As a father of two boys about this age, I can’t begin to imagine the
grief this family is going through,” said the statement from Sonoma
County Sheriff Steve Freitas.

The shooting Tuesday has shocked the local community in the city of
Santa Rosa, about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of San Francisco.

The latest chapter in the epidemic of gun violence in the United
States came a day after a 12-year-old boy in Nevada opened fire at his
school, killing a teacher, wounding two students and ultimately killed
himself.