Ohio Cop Uses Words, Not Bullets On 11-Year-Old Carrying Realistic BB Gun

Video of an Ohio police officer responding to a 911 call about two young black men with a gun has gone viral. But unlike circumstances that typically warrant the release of such videos, this one gained momentum not because it ended in violence, but because it could have, and didn’t.

According to the Columbus Police Department, the video was recorded on officer Peter Casuccio’s body-worn camera. He was on patrol Saturday afternoon when he was called out to a “gun run,” according to a press release by the department.

When Casuccio, who is white, arrived on the scene, he saw two juveniles, later identified as an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old. The younger boy, according to the officer, started to pull a gun from his waistband, prompting him to draw his service weapon.

It wasn’t until they hit the sidewalk that the officer realized it was a realistic BB gun, WSYX News in Columbus reported . 

The video begins after that initial interaction and captures Casuccio having a tense conversation with the boys, saying he was there because of a call about “two young blacks” with a gun.

“In today’s world, listen, that thing looks real, bro,” Casuccio says on the video, prompting the boys to apologize profusely.

“Do I honestly look like the type of dude that wants to shoot anybody?” he asks, to which the boys reply, “No, sir.”

“But do I look like the type of dude who will shoot somebody,” he asks, to which they respond, “Yes, sir.”

“I pride myself on being a pretty bad hombre because I got to be,” Casuccio says. “Don’t make me.”

Casuccio is later seen speaking with the mother of the 11-year-old.

“He could have shot you … you know that?” the mother asks her son after hearing about the incident.

“Regardless of what people say about the dudes wearing this uniform, we care,” Casuccio adds. “We legitimately care ... having said that, the last thing I ever want to do is shoot an 11-year-old man. 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.”

Columbus police spokesperson Chantay Boxill told CBS News  the video was released because “it was a good job done by the officer in a very, very tense situation, and we try to highlight those.”

Across the country, police use deadly force on a disproportionate number of black people. A 2015 Guardian investigation found that black people are more than twice as likely to be killed by police while unarmed than white people. 

Ronnie A. Dunn, the chief diversity and inclusion officer at Cleveland State University, told NBC News the officer could have addressed the boys differently and not used language such as “boy” and “hombre.”

But “at the end of the day, the officer used appropriate restraint, and de-escalation techniques to disarm the subjects, investigate and resolve, without the use-of-deadly-force,” Dunn said.

Speaking with the same media outlet, Willie Williams, the region 3 president of the National Black Police Association, said he was pleased with how Casuccio handled the situation.

“He explained to them that he could have used deadly force but did not because they listened and also because he is not out to shoot people,” Williams told NBC News.

Send David Lohr an email  or follow him on Facebook  and Twitter .