Raphael Christian was 16 when he died on April 16, 2008, at the Bentley Manor apartment complex in Marietta, Georgia. He had been outside with four friends around 6:30 p.m., showing them an air-powered pellet gun he had recently bought. Marietta police were responding at nearly the same time to a call about a suspicious person with a weapon.

Witnesses described a fast, chaotic confrontation in which officers arrived with guns drawn and ordered the teenagers to freeze. Friends said some tried to run while others stopped; Raphael kept moving and went around the corner of a nearby building. His friends later said they heard him cry out and then everything went silent. Police said the pellet gun resembled a real semiautomatic handgun, specifically a Beretta-style .22-caliber pistol, and that officers believed they faced an actual firearm.

Officers Andrew Phillips and Justin Rutland were identified as the ones who shot Raphael. Reporting indicates the officers were cleared in connection with the shooting; no arrests or criminal charges were made in his death. If anyone knew Raphael or witnessed the incident, please share what you remember.