Via Ace and Bearing Arms, I missed this yesterday but it deserves some belated attention. The victim, Keith Vidal, was schizophrenic, weighed 90 pounds, had already been tased, and reportedly was being held down by two officers when the shooting happened. He was armed with a “tiny screwdriver,” according to his family.

His dad claims that one cop said “we don’t have time for this” right before the kid was shot dead on the floor.

According to the report, the first unit on scene was a Boiling Spring Lakes officer who arrived at 12:34 p.m. He was joined shortly after by two additional BSL officers and a Brunswick County Sheriff’s Deputy. The first unit on scene reported a confrontation in the hallway, but told Brunswick County Dispatchers several times that everything was OK. Unit 104 from Southport arrived on the scene at 12:48:41, fourteen minutes after the first officer had already been on scene. Seventy seconds later, Unit 104 radioed out that he had to fire shots at the subject in order to defend himself. The event report mirrors what family members told the media… Wilsey said officers had his son down on the ground after the teen was tased a few times and an officer said, “we don’t have time for this.” That’s when Wilsey says the officer shot in between the officers holding the teen down, killing his son.

A detective’s been placed on paid leave while the investigation plays out. Obvious question: Even if the cop was such a monster that he’d murder a mentally ill kid simply because he was a drag on his day, how did he think he’d get away with it with both parents right there watching? Is a suspension and murder investigation less of an inconvenience than wrestling a small teenaged boy into a squad car? If he was counting on a mom and dad to be intimidated into silence over the cold-blooded murder of their son, he was counting on an awful lot. I notice too that the dad doesn’t explicitly say it was the cop who fired the gun who said “we don’t have time for this.” One of the officers there said it. Was killing Vidal what he had in mind or were the comment and shooting unconnected?

The official story, I assume, will be that Vidal was going for a gun in the holster of one of the cops who was restraining him. Exit question: If the parents’ version is true, it can’t be the first time this has happened, right? No one would attempt a murder this cavalierly unless he was very confident, based on prior experience, that he could get away with it.