Police: Teen Committed Suicide By Cop

WSYR/ABC News(NEW YORK) -- New York police are trying to determine what prompted a teenager to trick police into thinking he was an armed carjacker, chase him to a dead-end street, and then apparently goad them into killing him by pointing a pellet gun at the officers.

"Everything that we know, we would be able to use that term suicide-by-cop," Lt. Troy D. Little, with the New York State Police, told ABC News.

Justin Arnold, 17, of Cazenovia, N.Y., had no criminal history. Police are investigating his mental state or any mental health issues that may have led to Thursday's deadly shooting.

"We're trying to identify anybody who might give us some insight to Justin, family siblings, other relatives, other friends, co-workers, just anybody that might have been in touch with him in recent times," said Little.

Early Thursday afternoon, 911 received a call reporting an armed car robbery. Dispatchers relayed a description from the caller telling police the suspect was a young, white male wearing sunglasses and driving a silver car. The description matched Arnold.

Police spotted the car in Canastota Village, about 25 miles from Syracuse. They tried to stop the driver, but he fled, leading two police officers and a state police sergeant on a four mile chase that led to a dead-end road in Madison County.

When the 17-year-old got out of the car, police told him to show his hands. Instead, he pointed the black pellet gun at the officers.

The police officers fired 10 rounds at Arnold, four of which hit and killed the teen.

It was later determined that it was Arnold who made the 911 phone reporting an armed carjacking.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Did Bank Hostage-Taker Teen Commit Suicide by Cop?

Photo Courtesy - ABC News(CARY, N.C.) -- A North Carolina teen who was killed by police when he came out of a bank where he had held seven people hostage was holding something to the head of one of those hostages, but it was not a gun, officials said Sunday.

The revelation added to the mystery about what was going through the 19-year-old Cary, N.C., man's mind when he went to the bank Thursday, setting off a two-hour standoff with police.

Devon Mitchell had told hostages inside the bank and a police hostage negotiator that he had a gun during the standoff at a Wachovia branch in the town, Cary Police Chief Pat Bazemore said at a news conference Sunday. But Mitchell had also told a teller to call 911 when he went into the bank, and he apparently did not demand any money.

Police shot Mitchell when he came out of the bank holding something concealed in a red hat to the head of a hostage, Bazemore said.

"We were left with no other choice than to do exactly what we did," she said.

The police chief said Sunday she did not know what the young man was actually holding when a police sniper shot and killed him.

"Despite what the original 911 call reported, despite what he said to the hostages, despite what he told our hostage negotiator, despite what we all thought we saw when he came out of the bank with something pointing at one of the hostages heads, we now know there was not a gun," Bazemore said.

The police chief said their investigation indicated that Mitchell wanted police to kill him, so-called "suicide by cop."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio