What a horrible situation. On one hand, the bully didn't deserve to die, but you can't fault the kid for defending himself.
Yeah, the kid could have shows the knife, or just cut the bully to get him to back off, but what - you're going to carry the knife at all times with you? I guarantee if he cut the bully to scare him off the bully would just come back a different day even more angry at you. :\ I don't know if the situation was handled the best it could, but you can't blame the kid.
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