A shocking video has surfaced of two pajama-clad boys passing a loaded handgun back and forth, occasionally waving it in the direction of officers and each other. Officers were forced to fire a nonlethal round at the youngsters, who were not hurt.
The incident reminded some of the horrific 2014 death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, a Black Ohio preteen, who a white cop fatally shot after he was spotted playing with a replica gun in a Cleveland park.
X user MikeLarry2010 was excoriated for making the comparison.
“You can’t tell us we’re pulling the race card when you’re actions show you are the race card,” wrote MikeLarry2010, who reposted the harrowing video of the two New Mexico boys, captured Feb. 16. The footage was released so the public can see how drones are being utilized in real-life police scenarios.
The drone footage shows the younger boy struggling to hold the weapon steady. Neither boy appears aware of the gravity of the situation, which nearly got much worse when one of the boys pulled the trigger. Fortunately, the weapon malfunctioned and no bullets were fired.
Bodycam video shows the deputies pleading with the boys to put the gun down.
“Put it down, babe,” a female officer could be heard pleading.
“You’re not in trouble, but you have to put it down and come and talk to us,” another officer chimed in.
The female officer continues talking to the boys in a soothing manner. “Put the gun down and come and talk to me. You’re not in trouble, babe,” she assures them. “Can you please put it down so we can talk?”
“Put it down on the ground and come and talk to me,” a male officer insists.
He can then be heard advising a fellow police officer to aim for the wall and not aim directly at the children, in an effort to scare them and get them to drop the weapon.
“Try not to hit ‘em,” the officer says to his colleague.
“We want to help you. We don’t want to hurt you,” another officer tells them.
Finally, another officer uses a more forceful approach: “Drop it now or you’re gonna get hit!” he warns.
Faced with no other options, officers on the scene opened fire on the oblivious youngsters, emptying a non-lethal round that they fired at the wall of the home rather than directly at the boys, who were outside playing.
The cops are eventually able to grab the gun from one of the boys after they scooted to another side of the boxy structure they had been hiding behind.
@MikeLarry2010 noted Rice was killed within seconds of the police officers arriving at the scene to confront the boy.
Some commenters were confused by @MikeLarry2010’s point.
“I’m very happy my city’s police officers showed patience and restraint. Did you not want them to?” asked one reader.
In a press conference, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen explained that if the boys’ gun had gone off, deputies could have utilized deadly force.
“That would not have gone well with anybody in the nation,” the sheriff said.
Allen saluted the deputies’ restraint. Deputies say the family is well known to law enforcement and has been called to the children’s home at least 50 times prior to the incident.
Sheriff Allen said the family and the boys have a documented history of trauma.
No charges have been filed against the children or their parents. The loaded gun was seized. Sheriff Allen said the boys had been taught how to use the firearm.
“This was learned behavior,” he said, suggesting their actions in the video were not an innocent misunderstanding.
“We know one side is going to say, ‘Lock them in jail,’ ” Allen said. “They’re seven and nine years old. I told you before, numerous times… I understand the frontal lobe.”
Allen, known for his tough stance on youth crime, stopped short of criminalizing the boys but warned that, if they had been older, “we’d probably be speaking differently.”
The goal, the sheriff said, is rehabilitation, not retribution.
“Arresting people isn’t the only way out of this crisis of juvenile crime,” he said. “You have to look at it from a bunch of different avenues and use the resources you have, and then criminal elements can come later.”
Michael Lucero, the Behavioral Health Unit’s clinical manager, described how a team of 13 experts including paramedics, clinicians and law enforcement all descended on the home following the incident.
But even then, Lucero said the case “pushed the system to its breaking point.”
