Cop Shoots Boy Holding Fake Gun at Rec Center

Police said a 12-year-old boy was shot by an officer outside a Cleveland rec center Saturday when he reached into his waistband for an airsoft gun, according to WJW-TV.

Earlier:

In a scene that echoes scores of encounters between black males and police across the nation, the New York Times is reporting that a Cleveland, Ohio officer shot and wounded a 12-year-old boy who was carrying a fake gun.

The incident occurred Saturday outside a recreation center after witnesses allege the youth had brandished a gun on a playground, authorities told the Times.

Two police officers responded to the scene and ordered the youth to raise his hands, but he refused and reached for a gun in his waistband, the Cleveland Division of Police said in a statement. An officer fired two shots, striking the youth once in the abdomen, police and emergency medical services officials said, according to the Times.

The youth, whose name has not been released because of his age, was taken to a hospital in serious condition and underwent surgery. His mother told a local news station that her son’s condition had deteriorated to critical on Saturday night, the report says.

“There was no verbal or no confrontation,” Deputy Chief Ed Tomba of the Cleveland police said at an evening press conference, adding that the youth did not threaten the officers or point the weapon at them.

The police reportedly learned that the gun was fake after the shooting, said Jennifer Ciaccia, a spokeswoman for the Division of Police said, according to the Times. Investigators recovered a replica gun resembling a semiautomatic pistol, the police said. “It looks really, really real, and it’s huge,” Ms. Ciaccia said.

Following protocol, both police officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave during the investigation, the police said.

The shooting comes as a grand jury weighs evidence in an effort to decide whether to indict Ferguson, Mo., Police Officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, who was unarmed.

It also comes just days after New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton called the death of unarmed 28-year-old Akai Gurley, who was shot and killed by a rookie officer last week in Brooklyn, N.Y., “a very unfortunate tragedy.”

Bratton’s statement comes after the death of Eric Garner, the Staten Island, N.Y., father who died this summer after a New York City police officer placed him in a choke hold during an arrest, sparking widespread protests. The incident is still under investigation.

Agencies/Canadajournal