After seeing that photograph, I don’t blame the police! A toy gun, looking realistic at a distance, has no business as a toy!
Toy guns are not playthings. Kids need to learn to respect them from early age on. Perhaps there would be fewer accidents.
Good God, for a child that age it should be the PARENTS who get in trouble, not the child. There is no way the child, unless told, would be able to know that his rubber band gun appears similar enough to a genuine gun to be mistaken for it at the distances involved.