“Not looking good for the police in this case at all.”
No, you are wrong. The boy who was wearing a hoodie and originally had his back to the police, had a replica weapon, did NOT drop it when told to by the police officer. Instead he turned and raised it toward the officer who reacted as trained. This air soft gun DID NOT have the legally required ORANGE muzzle all such replicas must have.
My girlfriend and I were in the parking lot of Harbor Freight Tools in Stockton, California, two months ago when a young Hispanic man, about 22-23, in an orange traffic work vest, came running out between two parked cars with a look of terror on his face. About twenty feet behind him another young Hispanic man about 24 years old, clean shaven, in black sweats, was chasing him with a stubby barreled AR-15 with a collapsible stock, trying to get a bead on him. I could clearly see the barrel was dead black, no orange tip. My girlfriend said “get us out of here!” As she started sliding down in the seat, and I checked my rear view mirror and found I could not backout as a car was blocking us. The only way was right between them. I gunned the engine and we went between the runner and the guy with the gun. I got another good look at the gun. No orange. I was hitting my phone control and telling my phone to call 911, as we hit the street.
Within two minutes six Stockton PD cars and a swat team pulled down Waterloo Road heading for the strip mall. We turned around to meet them. My girl friend and I were the ONLY ones of the ten 911 callers that called to report the man with the gun that actually met with the police. We spotted the guy in the vest at a store front “church” next door to Harbor Freight and pointed him out to the police. He played “no habla ingles!” for about ten minutes. Even the two “pastors” of the “church” played dumb. My girlfriend offered to translate, being fluent in Spanish, at which point it turned out he spoke English.
He claimed he got bored while guarding the “church” (hence the traffic safety vest), so he and a buddy decided to play cops and robbers in the parking lot with a couple of air soft guns. He wouldn’t give up his buddy who he said was in the “church” but finally one of the “pastors” brought out the buddy wearing, a bearded young man in a white shirt and tie. This WAS NOT the man my girlfriend and I saw chasing the guy in the vest. . . nor did he, as he claimed to the police, also have an air soft gun. He was, in fact, totally terrified when I first saw him running from the guy with the AR-15! I pulled one of the cops over and told him “This is not the guy we saw. The guy we saw was clean shaven and was wearing sweats!”
The guy’s story agreed with the first guy’s. . . playing cops and robbers with air soft guns. There were now six cops standing around armed with REAL AR -15s. They were pissed. The stores in the mall were all in lock-down. The cops demanded to know where the air soft guns were. They wanted to inspect them. Buddy says “In the trunk of my car.”
The cop says let’s go. They come back with two AK-47 replicas made of machined metal. . . with orange tipped barrels! Neither was the gun I saw. They were quite heavy, and if not for the orange tip, almost impossible to tell from a real AK. they were heavier than the police AR-15s. The cop’s had NEVER seen such well made replicas. I tell the cops that’s not the gun I saw and that having managed The Olde Sacramento Armoury, I AM familiar enough with firearms to know what I saw!
In any case, the officers told the young men that had they rolled in WHILE they were still carrying them, they would most likely have SHOT them, orange barrels or not, because the police are trained to IGNORE the orange barrel because gang members are painting orange barrel tips on real guns! And kids paint out the orange tips on toys. They can’t know what’s real and what’s not. . . so, for their own safety, they have to err on the side of it being real. “I would not want to be calling your family down to the morgue to identify your body, but that’s what WILL happen.”
My girl friend and I are positive the air soft story was a cover-up. That gun was the real McCoy. That guy was terrified. My driving between them may have given him enough separation to let the runner time to duck into the door of the “church” to safety.
You may have noticed my use of quotes around certain words. We don’t think the “church” was a church at all. How many churches have guards? How many have no women come out to check on things when there is a disturbance after services? How many have pastors who don’t speak up when members are in trouble? Who don’t wear crosses? Who don’t invite the police in? And pointedly block the view inside? Whose members sport prison and gang tats? Hmmmm. A week later the “church” storefront was for lease.
The important take from this story is that police cannot take chances. A thirteen or fourteen year old these days can be as tall as six feet, some sport facial hair. With a hoodie? Carrying a realistic firearm which is being turned toward you? Would you think it was a toy?
Why were you in that neighborhood with your girlfriend?
Everyone seems to be assuming that you have every reason to be shot dead on sight if you are carrying a real AK-47; is that what the founding father's had in mind?