Baltimore Detective Shoots 14-Year Old Carrying BB Gun

[vibranium]

A Baltimore police detective shot a boy Wednesday afternoon who he wrongly believed was carrying a semiautomatic pistol, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.

 

The boy suffered what police called non-life-threatening injuries to a "lower extremity," Davis said. The weapon turned out to be spring-air-powered BB gun -- not a real firearm.

The boy's mother identified him as 14-year-old Dedric Colvin, an eighth-grader. Volanda Young said her son was shot once in the shoulder and once in the leg.

 

The incident came on the day city officials marked the one-year anniversary of the Freddie Gray riots.
 

Davis said two plainclothes detectives were driving when they spotted the boy with what appeared to be a firearm. The detectives got out of their vehicle, identified themselves as officers and told him to stop, Davis said. The boy began running, the officers gave chase for about 150 yards, and one detective shot the boy, Davis said.

 

Young said she was home Wednesday afternoon when an older son came banging on the front door.

 

"Ma," Alvin Colvin said. "The police shot Dedric."

 

Young said she ran outside to find the boy bleeding in a side street near a basketball court.

 

"All I could see was blood," she said. "I was screaming."

 

Police did not release the boy's name. They said he was 13. The detectives were not injured, Davis said. Police did not release their names

 

They did release a photograph of the gun they said he was carrying. It appeared to show a Daisy brand PowerLine Model 340 spring-air pistol.

 

After decades in law enforcement, Davis said, he might have mistaken it for a firearm.

 

"I looked at it myself today, I stood right over top of it, I put my own eyes on it," he said. "It's an absolute, identical replica semiautomatic pistol. Those police officers had no way of knowing that it was not, in fact, an actual firearm. It looks like a firearm."

 

Dedric was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Young said she pleaded with police: "Is my son alive?"

 

She said she was leaving to call the hospital when officers handcuffed her and put her in a police car.

 

"It was humiliating," she said.

 

She said she was taken to a police station and asked questions. At one point, she said, she was put in a cell. She said officers told her she was being belligerent.

 

After two hours, she estimated, she was driven to the hospital: "I begged them to take me."

 

She spoke in her home Wednesday evening. A medal that Dedric earned in the Baltimore Urban Debate League hangs on a trophy in the living room.

 

"He gets good grades. My son is a good kid," Young said. "I know he was scared. They shot at him while he was fleeing."

 

She said she didn't know where he got the BB gun.

 

The incident recalled the death of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old Cleveland boy who was shot by a police officer in November 2014 after he brandished a toy gun in a public park. The City of Cleveland agreed this week to pay $6 million to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Rice's family.

 

The heavy police presence Wednesday drew neighbors to the scene. Some milled around, condemning what they described as more police brutality in the city.

 

Some noted that the shooting occurred on the day that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was hosting a "reconciliation" event in West Baltimore to mark the one-year anniversary of the riots that erupted on the day Gray was buried.

 

The 25-year-old Baltimore man died after suffering a severe spinal cord injury in police custody. Six officers have been charged in Gray's arrest and death; all have pleaded not guilty.

 

Davis said the anniversary was "not lost" on him, either.

 

"The job of police officers here and elsewhere goes on," he said. "Police officers don't take days off. We're constantly tasked with responding to the concerns of the community. Public safety never takes a day off."

 

He noted a recent spike in homicides and nonfatal shootings in the city, and said officers are expected to confront people they believe are armed.

 

"The last 24, 48 hours, we've had a significant spate of gun violence and homicides and nonfatal shootings in our city, so our police officers were doing exactly what we have asked them to do," he said.

 

ARTICLE SOURCE

 

 

[Chancer]

Carry a gun, take the consequence.

[luisam]

Ok, the kid had a gun, was holding it and the gun looked like a real one. But did he actually "pretended" to shot at the officer? Did he threatened him in any way or simply "began running"?

I don't know the rules and procedures these policemen follow but I don't find so "reasonable" this shooting.

[Ballistic Gelatin]

Kids can be such idiots.

[humble3d]

3 hours ago, Ballistic Gelatin said:

Kids can be such idiots.

 

No question in the 21st Century where the electronic media controls kids growing up ~~ Not parents...

[Ballistic Gelatin]

37 minutes ago, humble3d said:

 

No question in the 21st Century where the electronic media controls kids growing up ~~ Not parents...

 

And pretty soon, the robots will be controlling the kids AND the media.

 

And the parents? Nah, don't need 'em. Unless they can be reprogrammed to serve the robots. Such irony.

[LeetPirate]

So fed up of this ->

"He gets good grades. My son is a good kid," Young said. "I know he was scared. They shot at him while he was fleeing."

Every time a criminal is apprehended or shot, a leftist liberal has to profess how much of a saint he/she was.