Erick Gelhaus

For those who don’t know the sheriff deputy who shot and killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa California has been identified as Erick Gelhaus…. He’s a 24 year veteran of the force, a firearms instructor, an Iraq War vet and writer for several gun publications..Recently some folks in folks following the case came across his photo bucket page and saw this bumper sticker …

Ya gotta wonder what his mindset is overall.. because this bumper sticker doesn’t advocate coexistence.. It advocates intolerance..

A few other things to think about..lets not delude ourselves and act like 13-year-old Andy Lopez was trying to scare anyone especially an officer. He wasn’t trying to take them out with a pellet gun nor was he playing toy soldier..Folks in the area said he had on earphones when he to his friend’s house when police came up behind him..

The officers were not there engaging Andy Lopez because neighbors were scared or reported a man with a gun.. It was 3pm in the afternoon, he was going to a friend’s house leaving a field that many use to shoot pellet guns.. There was nothing usual about his actions. There was no reports of a robberies and the police were not looking for a suspect who fit Andy Lopez’s description..

The police shot 13-year-old Andy Lopez within 10 seconds of coming upon him, meaning that they may have at 2 or 3 times at most, he turns around to see who is yelling and gets blasted 7x.  If he was wearing headphones as reported or simply didn’t hear or understand which was a possibility because the neighborhood is mostly Latino, the police should’ve approached this differently?

What remains in question is whether or not Andy even knew it was police officers yelling at him.. Did they say ‘This is the Police drop your gun and put your hands up? or did they say ‘Drop your weapon’? Deputy Gelhaus claims he doesn’t remember if heidentified himself as the police. His partner was still in the car when the shots were fired. He doesn’t indicate that they had identified themselves.

One has to wonder why they didn’t take more time to access the situation. Why was Andy shot so quickly? Within the 10 seconds of seeing Andy Lopez did these deputies have enough time to determine whether or not this was a kid and not a grown man ‘brandishing’ an assault rifle??

One would think officers are trained know all these different scenarios. One would hope that in an area where kids do carry pellet guns that they would know better upon encountering a 13-year-old. What we are being told to believe is that a 13-year-old boy pointed his gun at the police..In other words, he heard the police turned around and said ‘f– it lemme point my gun at you‘.. That makes no sense whatsoever..Deputy Gelhaus with all his 24 years of firearms training couldn’t tell this was a pellet gun or that Andy wasn’t ‘aiming at him when he turned around?

It’s also wrong to presume that at 13 year old would automatically know to be extra cautious around cops i.e . not making sudden moves or making sure his toy gun was pointed down etc.. As adults we know this.. But for many, especially if they haven’t encountered been apprehended or detained, they might know, or they might be hella nervous.. Police are trained to deal with those situations and should know how to put a kid at ease..Safety first, not killing first..