Baltimore police chief Kevin Davis has defended his officers for shooting a young teenage boy as he ran away from them holding a BB gun.
“I would argue our police officers were compelled to act when they saw that 13-year-old with a gun in his hand,” he said, as reported by CNN.
At a press conference Mr Davis placed a BB gun and an identical-looking semiautomatic pistol side by side, according to the Baltimore Sun.
“Police officers don't have to wait until they're being shot to engage in a deadly force scenario,” he added. ”The only time you really know if what looks like a gun is a gun is after someone starts squeezing the trigger.”
The two plain-clothed officers, Thomas Smith and one unidentified female officer, were walking out of a strategy session on how to handle a recent spike of gun violence when they saw 14-year-old Dedric Colvin - he has since been identified as 14 years old - walking along the street, carrying a basketball and what they claimed looked like a semiautomatic rifle.
The officers reportedly asked him to stop but he ran away and was pursued by the two officers on foot.
An independent witness, according to Mr Davis, said the boy then stopped, turned around and raised the gun.
Mr Davis said what direction the gun was pointed in and what the boy said “was a different question”.
The independent witness said Mr Colvin had shouted: "It’s not real!" at least twice.
The officers shot him from 150 yards away.
Mr Colvin remained in hospital on Thursday with wounds to his leg and shoulder.
The shooting occurred just two days after the city of Cleveland, Ohio, agreed to pay $6 million to the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who died in 2014 after police shot him while he was holding a replica handgun.
Mr Colvin's mother, Volanda Young, said that her son was scared and fled the police, and that he is “a good kid”.
She was handcuffed and taken into custody to be questioned, and was delayed from going to hospital to see her son.
Mr Davis said Ms Young had been “belligerent” and officers decided to take her into custody, but later released her without charges.
Ms Young met with the same law firm that secured $6.4 million compensation for the family of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died last year from spinal injuries in police custody.
The Baltimore Sun reports that Mr Colvin’s brother, Alvin, questioned Major Deron Garrity at the scene, asking why it was necessary to shoot when his brother had not pointed the gun at police.
“He did,” Mr Garrity replied.
The reaction to a police update on Facebook was mixed, with many people blaming the victim’s mother.
But Darren Willis said many people who praised the police missed the point.
“How was he to even know they were cops? He was 13 and ran away from grown-assed men who were strangers and armed. Details matter. I know, blame the target and the mom. It's easy for racists and idiots,” he said.
