If the title of this article sounds like common sense to you, that's because it should be. But the message clearly hasn't gotten out to everyone who needs to hear it. The uninformed masses included a 13-year-old boy in the upstate New York city of Utica. The teen was out with a friend wandering the streets on Friday evening when three police officers stopped them for questioning regarding recent robberies in the residential neighborhood where they were walking. The teen in question, named Nyah Mway decided to flee from the police on foot. He then drew what appeared to be a handgun and pointed it at the pursuing officers. A scuffle on the ground ensued. At that point, one of the officers drew his own service revolver and fired one shot at the boy, striking him. He was taken to a local hospital where he later died from the gunshot wound. The boy's firearm was later determined to be a replica, (it wasn't actually a replica, but more on that in a moment) drawing reported outrage from some members of the community. (CBS News)

Police Friday night fatally shot a 13-year-old boy following a foot chase in a residential neighborhood in the upstate New York city of Utica after the teen displayed what appeared to be a gun, authorities said. Police later determined the teen was carrying a replica handgun.

Three officers stopped the two teenagers at around 10 p.m. local time Friday as part of an investigation into several recent robberies, Utica police said in a news release Saturday night. While the authorities were questioning the teens, one of them fled on foot, police said.

As the victim ran, police spotted what "appeared to be a handgun," Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said in a Saturday morning news conference, during which he was frequently interrupted by outraged community members. One of the officers fired his gun and struck the teen, described as an Asian male.

There are so many things wrong with this story that it's difficult to even know where to begin. First of all, what was a 13-year-old child doing walking around the city unsupervised at 10:00 pm on a Friday night? Where were his parents or guardians? Also, the CBS coverage of this story isn't entirely accurate in calling the boy's weapon a "replica." It was found to be a pellet gun designed to resemble a Glock 17 with a detachable magazine. It almost certainly wouldn't have been lethal if it had been fired at the police, but it was still technically a weapon.

That brings us to the question of why anyone would decide to take a realistic-looking pellet gun out with them into the city. That's only going to make other people nervous and some of them may turn out to be armed themselves. Unless the boy was thinking of using it in an attempted robbery, there was no reason to do that. If you pull something that looks like a firearm on someone - particularly the police - they are going to respond accordingly. That's what happened to Nyah Mway and now he is no longer among the living.

This wasn't some case of the police randomly stopping children and shaking them down. The police were in that neighborhood because there were recent incidents involving what were described as "two young Asian males" who had robbed pedestrians at gunpoint, brandishing what was described as a black handgun. The two teens matched the description that victims and witnesses provided to the police, so that's why they were reportedly stopped for questioning.

Community members may be "outraged" by this police shooting, but many of them seem to have been responding to a video taken by a neighbor that quickly went viral on social media. The neighbor's video only catches the end of the encounter, but all three police were wearing body cameras and they recorded the entire incident. We don't know and may never know if Nyah Mway was involved in the recent gunpoint robberies, but it certainly sounds as if he was off to a bad start in life after emigrating to New York with his family. Also, his decision to pull a realistic firearm and point it at the police officers doesn't speak well of his judgment or motives. All of the people currently expressing outrage should take the time to review all of the evidence before passing judgment. They should also be asking where his parents were at that time and why he was being allowed to run wild. If anyone is to blame for his death, it would appear that the parents or guardians were far more at fault than the police.