A 16-year-old boy was killed in an Ohio juvenile courtroom Wednesday by an apparently justified police shooting.
The victim, Joseph Haynes, who went by the nickname “Joey Fuzz,” attacked a sheriff’s deputy and was shot during the ensuing struggle. Haynes was not a little boy (see photo); the deputy was injured and taken to a hospital. A police union official said the deputy was attacked by “multiple people,” suggesting other family members joined in.
Haynes was a repeat offender with a violent history. In 2016, he was arrested for choking his mother. He was back in court this time for pointing a gun at two people, after already being on probation and electronic monitoring for a concealed weapon charge. He was an out-of-control sociopath who posed a threat to the community.
His grandmother, who was in the courtroom, argues the deputy should have used a stun gun. That’s second-guessing. At this point, we don’t know if the shooting was intentional or the gun went off accidentally. Haynes may have tried to grab it.
Whatever the details are, Haynes instigated the fight and the deputy was defending himself, the judge, the prosecuting attorney, and other people present. To be alive today, all Haynes had to do was stay in his chair, but apparently that was beyond him.
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