A 13 year old boy was shot dead by police in Columbus, Ohio, after he pulled a harmless BB gun out of his clothing.
Police were chasing Tyree King following reports of an armed robbery.
Officers say he was with two other boys who matched a description of the suspects.
When police tried to talk to them, they ran off.
Officers caught up with King, who pulled the toy gun from his waistband. One officer opened fire.
The boy later died of his injuries in hospital.
The tragic incident follows a weekend of protests against the rising toll of black deaths at the hands of police in the US.
Hundreds of police shootings
Police have killed 761 suspects in 2016 – 372 were white, 188 black, 129 Hispanic, 13 Native American, 13 Asian and the rest of unknown race.
Campaigners argue the number of black deaths far outweighs the proportion of blacks in the population and blame racist, trigger happy police officers.
Protests against the killings has gone viral on social media and black-fisted salutes from sports stars have been shown on TV around the world.
Whatever way campaigners and officials look at cop shootings in the USA, either gun crime has got out of control or police reactions are too heavy-handed – but a mix of both is more likely the better picture.
A media campaign is underway to win the hearts and minds of the ordinary man in the street.
Protestors claim blacks are singled out by police, while the police argue that the officers carrying out the shootings are just as likely to be black or Hispanic as the victims.
Media monitoring
Journalists are monitoring the shootings, with The Guardian in the UK analysing national data and The Chicago Tribune has looked at every shooting in the city for the past six years.
In Chicago, out of 435 incidents, 80% of the victims were blacks, while half the police involved were black or Hispanic.
In the remaining shootings, 14% of the victims were Hispanic and 6% were white.
“Where you’ve got dope, you’ve got guns. It’s not about ethnicity — it’s about criminal involvement,” said Dean Angelo, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.
“As a police officer, you don’t wait for the shot to come in your direction. You might not get a chance to return fire.”
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