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‘I Could Have Killed You,’ Ohio Officer Warns Two Boys With BB Gun

An Ohio police officer, his weapon drawn, approached two boys in a Columbus neighborhood over the weekend and told them to kneel before picking up what turned out to be a BB gun lying on the sidewalk.

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By
Christine Hauser
, New York Times

An Ohio police officer, his weapon drawn, approached two boys in a Columbus neighborhood over the weekend and told them to kneel before picking up what turned out to be a BB gun lying on the sidewalk.

What followed was not a shooting or an arrest but a lecture to two black youths, ages 11 and 13. Video of the Oct. 13 incident, which was recorded on Officer Peter Casuccio’s body camera and released Monday by the Columbus police as a “life lesson” for young people, ignited an online discussion about policing, race and gun control in the United States.

“I could’ve killed you,” Casuccio says in the video. “I want you to think about that tonight when you go to bed. You could be gone. Everything you want to do in this life could’ve been over.”

Earlier in the video, he says, “I pride myself on being a pretty bad hombre, because I got to be,” warning the boys, “Don’t make me.”

At another point, he says: “The last thing I ever want to do is shoot an 11-year-old, man. Because your life hasn’t even gotten started yet. And it could’ve ended. Because I wouldn’t have missed.”

The Columbus Division of Police said on Twitter and Facebook that it released the video of the encounter, which took place after a 911 call, to teach young people about the realities of policing and carrying a gun.

The national debate over policing has intensified in Ohio after the fatal police shootings of Tamir Rice, a black 12-year-old who was killed while playing with a pellet gun in Cleveland in 2014, and of Tyre King, a black 13-year-old who had a BB gun and was shot in Columbus in 2016.

“Why is your department trying to pat themselves on the back for NOT shooting some Black kids who had a BB Gun?” one person wrote on the department’s Facebook page this week. “Open Carry is LEGAL in Ohio. White people, INCLUDING WHITE CHILDREN walk around openly brandishing REAL GUNS all the time. Do you threaten them with murder?”

Another person wrote: “I’m not from the area, but felt moved to comment when I read this story. Officer Casuccio handled this situation perfectly! I have the greatest respect for this man. Hopefully, these two youngsters have learned a very valuable lesson that may someday save their lives.”

Denise Alex-Bouzounis, a spokeswoman for the Columbus police, said on Wednesday that the body-camera video came to the department’s attention after it was highlighted by The Starfish Assignment, a community organization.

In the video, the officer brings one of the boys home and speaks to a parent “to show the good police work that our officers do every day,” Alex-Bouzounis said.

She said she was aware the footage had attracted both positive and negative responses, but added, “Any time police do anything, they are criticized.”

“This isn’t a race issue,” she said. “This is just an officer and a child who made a bad decision being schooled by an officer who cared.”

Casuccio, a military veteran who has been on the force as a patrol officer for four years, is assigned to the predominantly black South Linden neighborhood, where the encounter took place, she said. It began after a 911 caller warned that “this guy brandished a gun” but noted that the people involved were “two little kids,” according to a recording published by CBS News.

The department said in a statement that the officer responded around 5:30 p.m. “When he got to the scene, he discovered it was an 11-year-old boy,” it said. “He was carrying a BB gun.”

A 10-minute version of the video that was published by local news outlets shows the officer getting out of his patrol vehicle with his gun drawn, telling the boys to kneel and picking up the BB gun.

The social media post by the department, edited to about two minutes, begins with Casuccio speaking to the boys, who say they are 11 and 13, as they lean against a roadside divider. Their faces have been blurred.

The officer tells them that he received a call about “two young male blacks” who “look really young and they just flashed a gun.”

“Listen, here’s the deal, OK?” the officer says. “You had to show somebody, because how the hell did they know you had it?”

One boy says that he was only holding the gun. “You can’t do that dude, in today’s world,” Casuccio says. “Listen, that thing looks real, bro.”

The boys apologize. “You should be sorry, and you should be scared,” the officer says. “Do you think I want to shoot an 11-year-old? Do you think I want to shoot a 13-year-old?” The boys respond, “No sir.”

“But do I look like the type of dude that will shoot somebody?” he asks, to which the boys reply, “Yes, sir.”

The officer then takes one of the boys home and tells his mother about how he drew his service weapon at the beginning of the call.

“He could’ve shot you for that, you know that?” the mother tells her son.

“Regardless of what people say about the dudes wearing this uniform … we care,” Casuccio says. “We legitimately care.”

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