Unarmed Teenager Shot Dead by Police After Car Chase Through Campus
ByTyler Comstock, a 19-year-old unarmed teenager was shot dead by Iowa police. The fateful tragedy on Monday morning was actually triggered by a dispute between the teenager and his father.
"He just wanted a pack of cigarettes, and his dad wouldn't buy him a pack of cigarettes and he freaked out," the teen's mother, Shari Comstock, told the Iowa State Daily.
Upset with the decision, Comstock reportedly took off in his father's car without permission. That's when his dad, James Comstock, made a 911 call about his stolen vehicle.
"He took off with my truck. I call the police, and they kill him," James Comstock told the Des Moines Register.
Giving a deaf year to the police officials' instructions, Comstock refused to stop the vehicle and rammed into Ames Police officer Adam McPherson's car. Ames Police Department then pursued him around a crowded Iowa State University campus.
When both Ames and the ISU police surrounded the vehicle, Comstock finally stopped in Iowa State University's Central Campus. However, he refused to turn off the engine.
McPherson is then said to have fired six shots into the truck. The teen, believed to have been unarmed, died from two gunshot wounds to his head and chest.
Comstock's family is alarmed as to how a minor quarrel can lead to such disturbing consequences.
"So he didn't shut the damn truck off, so let's fire six rounds at him? We're confused, and we don't understand," Comstock's step-grandfather, Gary Shepley, told the Register.
Defending the firing, police said that Comstock may have put student's lives at risk when he drove through the university. Students walking on the pedestrian way had to duck away "to avoid being run over."
"Why the hell would they chase him into campus with all the people?" Shari told the State Daily. "Tyler would never hurt anybody, ever. He was just a scared child. He's pretty rational when he calms down."