A 13-year-old boy who was shot by a plainclothes Baltimore police officer Wednesday while carrying a replica handgun turned to face the officer with the replica gun still in his hand, Baltimore police say.
“These two police officers, 18 years’ experience in all, identified themselves as police officers,” Davis said, “and ran after a 13-year-old who ran for whatever reason and got involved in a police-involved shooting we wish didn’t happen but did happen.”
Davis said police interviewed an “independent witness” who “describes the 13-year-old as raising the gun” at the conclusion of the chase.
“What direction the gun was pointed in is a different question,” Davis said. That is still under investigation.
Davis, invoking an old cassette tape commercial that asked “Is it live or is it Memorex?” said officers could not be expected to make a snap decision on whether a weapon was real during a stressful pursuit. He spoke behind a display of two guns. One, he said, was real and one was a replica; they appeared to be identical.
“Put yourself in the shoes of these police officers,” Davis said. “It’s not a good idea in Baltimore to walk outside with one of those objects in your hand.”
Davis identified the officer who fired the shots as Thomas Smith, who has 12 years’ service and is now on administrative leave, a routine step in a police-involved shooting.
