Cop Confronts Kid Armed With Toy AR-15 and Manages Not to Kill Him

[The_King_of_Everything]

On New Year's Eve, Annapolis, Md., police officer Jason Shreves responded to a call about a man wearing a ski mask and a hoodie who was armed with a handgun and a rifle. The man, it turned out, was a 13-year-old boy, and the AR-15 and pistol were both airsoft guns. Somehow, the boy survived.

It is a sad state of affairs that a story about a police officer confronting a child armed with toys and not shooting him into oblivion should be notable at all, but here we are. The Baltimore Sun's Susan Reimer interviewed Shreves to find out why his encounter may have gone differently from the one that ended in the death of Tamir Rice.

Some differences that bear mentioning: Rice was black; the unnamed boy in Shreves' encounter was white, and was strolling through a relatively tony neighborhood. Shreves, who is also white, is a 10-year veteran of the Annapolis police force; the white Cleveland cop who killed Rice had about a year of total police experience and was found unfit for duty by a previous department in 2012.

With all that in mind, here is Shreves' account:

He turned a corner and saw someone dressed all in black and camouflage, carrying what looked like an AR-15 assault rife. He was wearing a ski mask and a holster with what looked like a hand gun in it.

"Drop the gun and get on the ground," he shouted. He'd drawn his service weapon, a .40-caliber semi-automatic.

The suspect obeyed and was handcuffed.

But when the police officer took off the ski mask, he saw the frightened face of a 13-year-old boy. The teen had apparently been strutting around the neighborhood with all his Christmas stuff, an Airsoft rifle and an Airsoft pistol, both of which shoot plastic pellets.

Why didn't the Annapolis police officer shoot? That's asking about all the decisions he made in fractions of seconds.

"He didn't turn toward me. He didn't come toward me. He didn't raise the gun or point it at me. When I told him to drop the gun and get on the ground, he complied immediately," said Officer Shreves.

"I didn't feel like he was a threat to me or others."

But afterward, he had to catch his breath.

"Every time you get something like this, nothing is the same. What would have caused me to take action? I was questioning myself.

"That ski mask comes off and I see this baby face."

It's possible that race did not play a factor in the incident; as Reimer notes, the teen's skin was likely mostly obscured if he was wearing a hoodie and mask. Still, the white kid in the wealthy quasi-suburban area survived; the black kid in Cleveland died.

Shreves told Reimer he is "confident" he would have handled the situation similarly in any other neighborhood, "Because I told him to drop the gun and get on the ground, and he complied." Rice, who was shot just two seconds after police arrived to the park where he was playing, probably didn't have the chance to.

http://gawker.com/cop-confronts-kid-armed-with-toy-ar-15-and-manages-not-1678084292

 

[ORDER_66]

the cop in this situation is correct. tamir never got the chance....

 

[I'm Billy FUCO!!]

The video showed Tamir pulling something from his waist just before he was shot

This kid complied with the cop's orders, though.....

 

[Amerikan Melanin]

Tamir was killed in a drive by. his face was uncovered and they saw what they always see, a superhuman black demon. Immediate threat level on 10.

 

[606onit]

The video showed Tamir pulling something from his waist just before he was shot

This kid complied with the cop's orders, though.....

Tamir never received instructions or had a chance. They rolled up and executed him.

 

[I'm Billy FUCO!!]

Tamir never received instructions or had a chance. They rolled up and executed him.

Even though they approached him pretty fast....we don't know this for sure

All 'chance' goes out the window if you're told to put your hands up, and you reach into your waist and pull something out instead

The only question is whether or not they gave him sufficient warning like they claimed....

Even the cop in this other story said he made decisions in "fractions of seconds".....that's how quick shyt goes down in a situation like that. The difference was, the kid didn't fukk around, and actually obeyed the cop's commands.....

 

[ORDER_66]

The video showed Tamir pulling something from his waist just before he was shot

This kid complied with the cop's orders, though.....

BUT TAMIR NEVER GOT THE CHANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[I'm Billy FUCO!!]

BUT TAMIR NEVER GOT THE CHANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only takes half a second to tell somebody to put their hands up...

Only takes half a second to either put your hands up, or reach into your waist....

Was about 1 or 2 seconds between them exiting the cop car, and them shooting him....even longer if you think they ordered him while pulling up in front of him.....

Sounds about right

 

[malbaker86]

BUT TAMIR NEVER GOT THE CHANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don't waste your time bruh, he's just trollin....

 

[ORDER_66]

Only takes half a second to tell somebody to put their hands up...

Only takes half a second to either put your hands up, or reach into your waist....

Was about 1 or 2 seconds between them exiting the cop car, and them shooting him....even longer if you think they ordered him while pulling up in front of him.....

Sounds about right

HAVE YOU NOT SEEN THE fukkING VIDEO. THERE WAS NO WARNING NO NOTHING... THEY ROLLED UP AND SHOT THE LITTLE KID, THERE WAS NO FREEZE THIS IS THE POLICE, DROP YOUR WEAPON, HANDS UP. OR ANYTHING STOP YOUR fukkING LIES!!!!

 

[I'm Billy FUCO!!]

don't waste your time bruh, he's just trollin....

The Coli: Where having a different opinion/view = trolling

 

[ORDER_66]

don't waste your time bruh, he's just trollin....

*Ignore list for this dumb ass muthafukka...

 

[I'm Billy FUCO!!]

HAVE YOU NOT SEEN THE fukkING VIDEO. THERE WAS NO WARNING NO NOTHING... THEY ROLLED UP AND SHOT THE LITTLE KID, THERE WAS NO FREEZE THIS IS THE POLICE, DROP YOUR WEAPON, HANDS UP. OR ANYTHING STOP YOUR fukkING LIES!!!!

Have I seen the video?

Well, let's see.......from the original thread:

Hmmm.....finally watched the video......

I'm gonna try my best to be impartial/unbiased here......

I gotta say, that did go down much faster than I expected .....like everyone else, I was thinking by the cops' account, there was like a short 5 to 10-second-long standoff after the cops pulled up to him and exited the car, before they shot him.....

But the video still doesn't necessarily disprove what the cops said ....here's what I see:

Kid was clearly sitting at the table, then got up just before the cop car approached him.

Can't really see in the video exactly what he's doing as he's getting up from the table....so you can't say for sure whether or not he picked up the gun and put it away at his waist at this point, like the cops claimed he did...

Then the kid slowly walked up to where the car pulled up. He didn't try to run away, or nervously shuffled/moved around. He took 2 more calm steps forward, just as the car stopped in front of him.....like he was actually trying to approach them. That part I found weird ......

Lil man looked like he was holding/pointing the gun with his right hand earlier in the video. Now look at the movement of his right arm after he gets up from the table, just before he got shot. Despite the grainy video, it's easy to see how his arms were moving around this time (due to the torso of his shirt being white, and arms being black)......

One second, both of his arms are up nearly to his chest, almost like he was clasping his hands together in front of him for some reason (his right arm is at a right angle)......

The next second, he lowers his right arm and brings it back, and his right hand is near his waist.....keep in mind he's doing this as he calmly walks up to the car.....

The very next second, after he's in front of the car, his right arm is raised up and bent even more, near his side......his right hand raised up from his waist.....like he just pulled something from his waist with it, and was lifting it up with his right hand....

The very next second after that.....he's down...

Questions for the cops, though:

Why did they drive right up to someone who they thought had a real gun?

And how did they see him pick up the gun and put it in his waist while he was at the table? He did that about 5 seconds before they pulled up. Even if they were parked just off-screen at the time, that's still at least about 40 feet away from the boy....

As for the warning they claimed they gave the kid to put his hands up.....I tried to say "put your hands up" 3 times, between the time the car pulled up in front of the kid, and the time the kid got shot......it can be done, but you'd have to say it pretty fast (which could've been the case in what they saw as a high-risk situation; also they claimed the car door was already open as they said it)....of course, there's no audio to tell whether or not they actually warned him....

This shyt is really sad, though.....no matter what you believe went down......

 

[the cac mamba]

The video showed Tamir pulling something from his waist just before he was shot

....

i dont think that video was good enough to see that

they should have rolled up to 60 feet away and yelled at the kid through the loudspeaker

 

[ORDER_66]

SO LIKE I SAID TAMIR NEVER GOT THE CHANCE HE WAS fukkING ASSASSINATED ON THE SPOT...

NO SECOND GUESSING, NO ESTIMATING, NO GIVING THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT...