Parents of boy shot while carrying airsoft rifle file suit

The parents of a Northern California teen fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy alleged that their son was gunned down too quickly and without legal justification in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.

In the lawsuit, the parents say Gelhaus fired at Lopez while he lay on the pavement. A private autopsy of Lopez commissioned by the family’s lawyer show two shots traveling horizontal from the buttocks into the teen’s upper body.

The article notes that it is “unusual” for a suit to be filed so soon. Then again, Andy Lopez’s shooting was an unusual case.