A police officer fatally shot a 13-year-old, who was trying to arrest reportedly on a robbery, according to officials in Columbus, Ohio.
Authorities identified the child as Tyree as King. The Columbus Division of Police, said in a statement that King “pulled a pistol from his waist” when officers tried to him and another man in custody Wednesday night take.
After the shooting, police said investigators recovered a compressed air gun with a laser sight attached the scene.
The police were called to a report of a group of people – including one armed with a gun – demanding money at 19:42 ET.
Officers arrived at the scene saw three people who match the descriptions of the suspects about a block away. However, when they tried to talk to them, two of the men escaped, according to the police statement.
“Agents males he followed the alley … and tried to take them into custody as a suspect pulled a gun from his waist,” he said. “One officer fired and hit the suspect several times.”
King was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead at 20:22 ET.
No one else was injured. The other suspect man was interviewed and subsequently released pending further investigations,
As with all involved-shootings police officers receive “counseling mandated counseling” and will be given the opportunity to “take leave time to help in the recovery from a traumatic experience,” according with the Columbus Division of Police.
Then officers found and confronted three men in a nearby street, with two of them fleeing. King was one of the young men and police he said after his waist pulled what was later determined to be a compressed air gun fitted with a laser sight. then King was shot by an officer.
The police were called to East Broad and 18th streets, and later found the three young men in Hoffman Avenue. A witness who lives in the Avenue Hoffman told The Dispatch heard someone knocking through a door in your backyard, and later saw police chasing two men in an alley and then heard three to five shots.
The name of the officer who shot the king has not been revealed, and none of them has the name of another young man who fled with the king. According to New York Daily News, police said the other suspect the king was interviewed and released and are looking for the other suspects.
The officer who fired the shots is a nine-year veteran hand who recently transferred to the area where the incident occurred, according to NBC station WCMH.
The incident comes nearly two years after 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot dead by a policeman in Cleveland, Ohio.
Rice, a black sixth-grader, was holding a pellet gun when the officer shot two seconds of arriving on the scene.
His death sparked protests by police and racial prejudice. Last December, a grand jury decided not to indict the two officers involved. In April, the city of Cleveland agreed to pay $ 6 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by the family of rice.
