Posted on 11/23/2014 3:10:20 PM PST by Impala64ssa
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A rookie Cleveland police officer shot a 12-year-old boy outside a city recreation center late Saturday afternoon after the boy pulled a BB gun from his waistband, police said.
Police were responding to reports of a male with a gun outside Cudell Recreation Center at Detroit Avenue and West Boulevard about 3:30 p.m., Deputy Chief of Field Operations Ed Tomba said.
A rookie officer and a 10-15 year veteran pulled into the parking lot and saw a few people sitting underneath a pavilion next to the center. The rookie officer saw a black gun sitting on the table, and he saw the boy pick up the gun and put it in his waistband, Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Jeffrey Follmer said.
The officer got out of the car and told the boy to put his hands up. The boy reached into his waistband, pulled out the gun and the rookie officer fired two shots, Tomba said.
Tomba said the child did not threaten the officer verbally or physically.
At least one of the shots hit the child in the stomach. He was rushed to MetroHealth Medical Center in serious condition. His current condition was not immediately known.
As a handful of community activists shouted obscenities from behind a group of reporters, Tomba said the incident was "very, very tragic."
"We don't come to work everyday and want to use force on anybody," Tomba said. "That's not what our job is. We're part of this community."
The department's use of deadly force investigation team, made up of officers from the homicide and internal affairs units, members of the city's Office of Professional Standards and the city and Cuyahoga County prosecutors office, will determine if the officer was justified in shooting the boy.
Tomba promised the investigation would be open.
"When an officer gives a command, we expect it to be followed," Tomba said. "The way it looks like right now, it wasn't followed, but we're going to continue our investigation."
The shooting comes as the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the department to determine if it regularly uses excessive force against its citizens.
Northeast Ohio Media Group will continue to update this story.
A split second to make a decision, a lifetime for others to pick it apart. Have you seen the bb gun in question? I might have shot hm too. I love it when guys monday morning quarterback police action. Sometimes they have a valid point. Other times they’re just pissing into the wind. Like now. Why is there no questioning that the kid was unsupervised? Why is the kid carrying a bb gun that looks JUST like a M1911 colt .45? for show and tell? Hell no! the kid was up to no good. He was out to impress or intimidate. Don’t wanna get shot? Don’t wave around something that looks EXACTLY like a gun around a cop. and you can call cops jackbooted thugs and nazis etc. all you want. But there are good cops and bad cops and while it’s true the bad cops make it hard on good cops people who second guess cops before all the facts are in don’t help either. Case in point: when the Michael Brown shooting was first announced there were a lot of people on FR saying “OMG, did that cop screw up!” or variations thereof. When the rest of the info came out a lot of people had to backpedal quite a bit. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a right to your opinion. You certainly do and I’ll gladly defend your right to have one. Just remember these stories are reported by news organizations that are any thing but neutral, fair and balanced. News organizations that tend to have an adversarial relationship with many types of authoritary figures, including cops. Think for yourself and utilize the new media.
CC
Wrong. That’s all I will say about your post. and that’s more than you deserve, frankly. you sound like a ‘60s liberal.
CC
If the kid didn’t pull the gun, would the cops admit it??? Just sayin’...
Well hell then, that's that. Orders are orders, and everyone knows the penalty for not instantly obeying the camp guards.
Bill the kids family for the bullets and send the cops to Hawaii for a month.
Easy case. Next.
I think you missed my point. Your friend that only pulled his gun once DID NOT FIRE, even though by today’s standards he was justified in shooting the perp dead. Your friend was a real cop, one who’s first instinct is not to kill the second ANY apparent threat is perceived weather it be real or not. And the “perp” is likely alive today. Your friends mindset was to save a life even if they were armed and acting crazy at the time. This is not the mindset prevelent in law enforcement today.
Yes....yes he is.
Big bucks???? Do you know how much cops make and what they do on the job? They are grossly underpaid.
They love coming out to defend violent thugs, because they know that white America will begin stating that the thugs deserved what they got.
Could be. I have also wondered if their hatred of guns is so deep that they partially blame John Crawford III or this kid for their own deaths, because they were carrying a "gun" at the time.
The fact that they rallied around Michael Brown rather than John Crawford III (killed within a few days of each other) definitely makes me think that they're choosing their martyrs based on some criteria that doesn't make sense to me. Another guess was that they didn't want Crawford because his death was likely filmed and thus there might be visuals contrary to their spin.
What’s with it with Ohio and cops killing people with BB guns? This is the second person killed in as many months.
A grand jury decided not to file charges Wednesday against police officers who shot and killed 22-year-old John Crawford III inside a Beavercreek (Dayton area), Ohio, Wal-Mart for carrying a BB gun
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/09/24/walmart_bb_gun_no_indictment_john_crawford_shooters_will_not_be_charged.html
If your standing in the same room, 6 feet away, the only way you can tell if it's the real thing is if you can see the bore....
Here’s an idea..if you don’t want to get shot..don’t point a gun at cops..gee, logic, who knew!
Sad thing is, in the urban black culture, the whole idea of something we used to call “common sense” is never, ever inculcated.
And you sound like a boot licking statist.
Cops in California make well over $100,000 per year. With a HS diploma.
Very nice BB gun! I think I'll buy that model. Especially like the sliding grip cover for access. The author of the video complained somewhat that it doesn't look quite like the real thing, because of the several screw holes! Pretty realistic imitation with the moldings to look real.
On another note, news reports now confirm the boy had an airsoft gun with the orange tip removed - it was not a BB gun.
And in San Francisco, besides the over $100 grand, their pension is nearly 100 percent of pay at 50 years of age. They top off at 94 percent. But when overtime is factored in, they end up getting more in their pension than their regular pay. A lot of cops earn $150 grand a year with overtime pay. Formula was 3 percent times years of service times last year of pay including overtime, with a max at 94 percent, earliest to receive full retirement is 50 years of age. Formula may have been increased in recent years. They are extremely well paid. I don’t know if a college degree is required, that may be so now. But in years past a HS diploma was sufficient. I know SF cops who merely have a HS equivalency diploma, never having finished high school.
Which department/city are you talking about? I can find no California city where police make "well over $100,000 per year" as you have stated.
If the kid survives, he got his instruction.
A Police Officer works 40 hours per week on different shifts and overtime may be required. San Francisco offers excellent benefits and the current starting salary is $80,574 per year. After seven years of service a Police Officer may earn up to $112,164 per year.
I don't doubt some police somewhere, maybe even SF make $100k. But based on all I have read their numbers would be few and they certainly would be the exception.
No, I just think about these things before I make up my mind. I don’t do kneejerk decision making.
CC
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