As relatives and friends gathered to lay 19-year-old Justin Jackson to rest, several questions surrounding the accounts of how city police officers came to fatally shoot the young man one week earlier remained unanswered. But then the question of what this young man, who his father said was “trying to turn his life around,” was doing with a gun in his possession, clouds the issue of excessive force by police. Within hours of the May 6 early evening shooting in Pittsburgh’s Mt. Oliver neighborhood, city police Chief Nate Harper said two officers—one a canine officer, saw Jackson walking down Arlington Avenue with his hand “under his jacket.” When asked to take his “hand from his pocket,” Jackson revealed a .357-caliber pistol. The canine officer, since identified as eight-year veteran Chris Sciulli, released the dog, which Jackson fatally shot before he and the officers exchanged several more shots. Jackson was struck in the head and torso and died at the scene. Two days later, police amplified the official account, saying Jackson shot at the officers first. No one noticed the dog had been hit until the shooting ended. The officers were responding to a report of shots being fired when they encountered Jackson. But some are asking, if being a young Black man with hands in pockets a block from where shots were reportedly fired constitutes probable cause for a search?