I suppose it's understandable that people want to think the best of deceased relatives - I've seen this a few times with former pupils who were involved in criminal activity, when the death notice has been placed on FB as now seems to be the case round our way, rather than a newspaper obituary.
I taught for well over 40 yrs, so it's not a surprise that a small percentage finished up getting themselves entangled in criminal behaviour.
When I hear or read comments stating that the deceased was 'a pure soul', etc. I bite my tongue.
ETA So far as this case is concerned, my sympathies are wholly with the policemen and their families.
I feel sorry for the families of the teenagers.
Some years ago, one of my former pupils went racing on a local road at about 2 a.m.
He drove on the wrong side of the road whilst overtaking a friend on the correct side. He hit a lorry head on.
Fortunately, the lorry driver was okay - though there must have been psychological trauma. The pupil's passenger was killed immediately; the pupil suffered a life-changing injury.
He came from a good family and would have been 19 or 20 when it happened.
A few years later, my husband was hit head on by a teenager who had taken his mother's car (while she was on holiday). He'd been racing his sister down a village main street.
My husband survived, but lost a small piece of scalp and had a neck injury. I recall the local bobby persuaded DH not insist on charges being pressed, because the mother was a 'banker and an upstanding citizen' - though I don't think that the victim has the power to discount charges in Scotland. Probably they just wanted us not to rock the boat by complaining.
Dh said that the boy was entitled to 'one mistake', since the boy had actually called the police and ambulance himself.
I'm only adding this edit because it's not just 'bad families' that have this kind of situation...but it's still all wrong, of course.
If my husband had been killed, I'd have rained merry hell on the banker's son.