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Officer gets gun call, realizes it's kids with a BB gun: 'I could have killed you'

5 years 5 months 1 week ago Wednesday, October 17 2018 Oct 17, 2018 October 17, 2018 1:36 PM October 17, 2018 in News
Source: WBRZ

COLUMBUS, OH - Body camera footage captured the tense moment an officer realized he had pulled his weapon on a couple of kids with a realistic-looking BB gun.

Officer Peter Casuccio, with the Columbus Police Department received a call that there were "two young male blacks" that had "just flashed a gun" while he was driving Saturday. When he found the boys, the officer said one of them "freaked out and started pulling the gun out of his waistband." The child quickly dropped the gun to the ground and no shots were fired by the officer.

"This is getting kids killed all over the country," Cascuccio said to the boys.

The two young men, who turned out to be 11 and 13 years old, were audibly shaken up.

"You should be sorry and you should be scared," Casuccio said.

"I didn't want him to shoot," the 11-year-old is heard saying to the other boy.

"I know you didn't want me to shoot," Casuccio responded. "Do you think I want to shoot an 11-year-old? Do you think I want to shoot a 13-year-old?"

Casuccio then drove to the 11-year-old boy's home and explained to his mother what had happened.

"Regardless of what people say about the dudes wearing this uniform," Casuccio said. "We care, we legitimately care, and the last thing I want to do is shoot an 11-year-old. Because your life hasn't even gotten started yet."

Casuccio urged the boy to think about what could have happened before he went to bed that night.

"I could've killed you," Casuccio said. "You could be gone. Everything you wanted to do in this life could be over."

In the last few years, officers in Ohio have fatally shot young, black men saying they mistook toy or BB guns for real weapons. In 2014, 11-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed at a Cleveland park after touching a fake gun at his waist. In 2016, a Columbus police officer killed 13-year-old Tyre King after the boy pulled a BB gun from his waistband.

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