If the gun in question was the photo Blues Stringer posted I couldn't tell it was fake at a glance.
It was the same model , but it was the black version.
I have had a change of heart since first posting on the story though, because I've since seen the security footage synchronized with the 911 call from Ronald Ritchie and a couple of significant points come to light:
1) Ritchie lied throughout the 911 call stating that Crawford was trying to load the weapon and that he was pointing it at people. At one point he said, "He just pointed it at two children." Neither loading attempts nor pointing at anyone ever happened as the security footage clearly shows, but that was the information cops had when they got there.
2) The cops took Ritchie's word for everything and came in with guns a' blazin'. The cops are out of frame in the video I saw, and it's possible that verbal contact was made a few seconds before they can be heard on that soundtrack, but from the first voice being heard on the video to them opening fire was maybe a second, very nearly simultaneously.
I'd say that Ritchie should be prosecuted for something depending on available statutes concerning false reporting etc., but the responsibility for the death lies squarely on the two trigger-happy, no-identifying-their-target cops.
Unfortunately, the grand jury declined to hand down an indictment, and of course the CoP and union stand 100% behind their trigger-happy officers. The end.
Link Removed
Normally I would post a link to the video to which I'm alluding, but I don't recall where I first saw it (it was some weeks back), and the only sources I can find in a quick search are from democracynow and thinkprogress. Apparently only leftist websites are willing to report the truth about government-sponsored unjustifiable homicides these days, and I have no intention of driving hits to their websites or YouTube channels, but the video is out there and not that hard to find if one can stomach the hosts.
Blues