I'm afraid I don't understand.
I think the cops actions were justified.
If you say the cop shouldn't have fired, then you accept the fact that other people could have died.
I would like to note this. This wasn't a spur of the moment whip out your pistols and fire moment. This kid had refused to put down the gun long enough for the cops to show up. He refused to listen to teachers or authority. He threatened his classmates. Everyone in that hall probably thought there was a good chance that they would die.
Let's have a test Escapist. Below I shall post two pictures. One is a real gun, the other is a pellet gun.
Which is which?
The one on top is the fake gun. Most people can probably determine this due to the pellet gun being made of plastic, and having less detail.
But could you determine it, if it was held in someone's hands fifteen feet away? Would you be willing to risk the lives of other people if you're wrong?
I don't think so. So you use circumstantial evidence. You have a kid who was willing to draw a weapon, and threaten other people. Although he's probably a decent kid (since being a little kid obviously means he's innocent of any evil), as an officer, you know that school shootings do occur.
There are several possible outcomes.
He puts the gun down. After at least 10 minutes of talking (between the teachers, the students, and the police arriving and talking), he still refuses to do so.
The police try to take him down. This is difficult. He is a gunman in an open hallway. Tazers or physical force require you to be very close, and that range cannot be reached as long as he has a gun. Tear gas and other means will not work either, as it may cause him to fire in retalliation.
Kid fires. In best case scenario, he drops the gun in a panic, and the bullet misses. In the worst, he shoots 1 or more people before the police shoot him, most likely killing him.
The police fire in order to disarm or wound him. Despite what TV may show, trickshots to disarm or disable a target are not hard. They're near impossible. Keep in mind that it has to be a shot good enough so that it doesn't kill him, but forces him FOR SURE to drop the gun. This is why in most cop/criminal shootouts, the criminal winds up dead. Not because he deserves it, but because there is no way to disarm them.
The kid's gun is fake This would be the best outcome, but unfortunately, there is no way to confirm or deny this. You would like to believe in a world where children would never murder another person, but at the same time, you know that bullying has pushed school students to do terrible things. At best, the chance of the gun being fake is 50/50.
The police shoots the kid. It is horrible to do this, as he is so young, and he could definitely change. At the same time though, there are lives in danger. This boy has the power to kill, and is unwilling to put it down.
Would it have been better if the cops knew it was a fake gun? Definitely. Wouldn't it be better if there were some other way? Definitely. However, there was no way to know that it was a pellet gun. And there were no other options.