Five police officers accused of negligence in the shooting death of a 16-year-old continue to defend themselves. The Regina police officers are the targets of a lawsuit, launched by the mother of Josh Engdahl. The boy was shot and killed in September 1998. The mother, Lynn Engdahl, claims the police did not have to shoot her son, in order to subdue him. However, the lawyer for the police says they had no option:

"There was really nothing the police could do in the circumstances," says Aaron Fox, who represents the Regina Police Officers named in the Engdahl lawsuit. He says the basics of what happened aren't in dispute: Josh Engdahl had a knife. He had slashed at a postal worker. The police were called. They caught up with him and were about to set a police dog on him. But Engdahl lunged at an armed officer.

"Josh had a choice of putting down the knife," Fox says. "Josh made the choice to charge at a police officer. Unfortunately, the shooting was the end result of that."

In short, he says, the suffering of his mother - who was at the scene and watched her boy die - was all Josh's fault. The police were following their procedures, and their training.

If anything, Fox says, Josh's emotional problems were the root cause of the tragedy. "Had he received more of a co-ordinated treatment program, perhaps he wouldn't have been in the street, charging at a police officer with a knife in his hand."

Fox says it will be several months yet, before the lawsuit goes to a trial. Lynn Engdahl has not asked for a specific amount of money as damages.