A veteran police officer who gave a powerful lecture to two youth playing with a bb gun in Columbus, Ohio, has received praise for the way he handled the situation.
Officer Pete Casuccio responded after a call came in from a concerned citizen about two kids with a gun. Not realizing the gun was a fake, Casuccio drew his weapon as he exited his car – but he didn’t fire.
Instead, he had some choice words for 11-year-old Ja-Kwan Sowell who dropped the bb gun after being startled by the officer.
“You can’t do that, dude, in today’s world,” Casuccio chastised Sowell.
“Listen, that thing looks real, bro,” he continued.
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Casuccio’s bodycam captured the entire interaction between the officer and the two young boys.
CBS News reports that Casuccio is a third-generation officer who works one of the toughest neighbourhoods in Columbus.
He told CBS reporter Dean Reynolds that this was “the closest he’s ever come to shooting… but then not shooting his weapon,” and that under different circumstances, he may not have noticed it was a bb gun until it was “too late.”
In 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was playing with what turned out to be a pellet gun when he was fatally shot under similar circumstances by a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio.
Sowell told CBS News he hadn’t thought about the dangers of playing with the toy gun before the officer’s warning and said he regretted it.
In the video, he is heard telling Cassucio, “I’m so sorry,” to which the officer responds: “You should be sorry, and you should be scared.”
The 11-year-old’s mother, Tielissa Sowell, said she told her son he shouldn’t have been playing with the bb gun and that she “could have lost him.”
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