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Columbus Boy Fatally Shot By Police After Reportedly Pulling Out BB Gun

Officials in Columbus, Ohio, appealed for calm, patience and investigative help Thursday, hours after a white police officer fatally shot a 13-year-old black boy who had apparently brandished a firearm that was later determined to be a BB gun. Officers gave chase and King and another man ran into an alley where a policeman shot him multiple times after he pulled a weapon from his trousers, police told the station. The police said that three males suspects had been spotted and two ran away when confronted by police. Braxton said police started chasing them and they ran.

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At a press conference at city hall, officer Kim Jacobs showed an image of the BB gun that was recovered from the scene.

The incident begins earlier in the evening when police responded to an armed robbery.

The shooting happened after a man told police that a group had pulled a gun on him and stole an unspecified amount of money, police said. Walton would not discuss any previous dealings Tyre had with police but said the boy had no violent criminal history. Columbus police don’t use body cameras.

“And a 13-year-old is dead in the city of Columbus because of our obsession with guns and violence”.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, while showing support for police officers, promised a full investigation.

“I was in the situation”, Braxton told The Columbus Dispatch.

At the police news conference, Jacobs displayed a photo of a BB gun like the one King allegedly had. The officer who shot him was identified by the police as Bryan Mason, a nine-year veteran of the Columbus police force.

The weapon turned out to be a BB gun with a laser sight attachment created to help a shooter’s aim, according to police.

According to a project by the Guardian, at least 34 people who were killed by police this year were carrying non-lethal firearms, such as pellet or toy guns, that authorities mistook for lethal weapons.

Police Chief Kim Jacobs says after the shooting is investigated, a grand jury will consider whether charges are merited. The Columbus Division of Police released a statement that the police thought the two matched the description of the suspects and gave pursuit, only to end up in an alley where King, who was an eighth grader, pulled “what looked like handgun from his waistband”.

Rice was drawing an airsoft gun from his waist when Officer Timothy Loehmann, who is white, fired the fatal shots within two seconds of arriving outside a recreation center where the sixth-grader was, a prosecutor said.

The Columbus Police Department said it was investigating the late Wednesday death of Tyree King, the latest in a string of shootings of African Americans by law enforcement that have fueled protests and national debate about policing tactics in U.S. cities.

The gun “turns out not to be a firearm in the sense that it fires real bullets, but.it looks like a firearm that can kill you”.

Tyree played football and was in the young scholars program at school, Walton said.

Investigators are speaking with one of the armed robbery suspects, as well as multiple witnesses of the robbery and shooting. The individual with King was questioned and released; they are continuing to look for suspects. That woman on the phone apparently dialed 911 for the alleged robbery victim, who told police he wasn’t going to bother calling – until the woman did it for him – because the teens had only stolen $10.

“There is something wrong in this country, and it is bringing its epidemic to our city streets”, Ginther said. The caller had said the person was likely a juvenile and the weapon was probably fake, but the call taker never passed that information to the dispatcher of the responding officers.

Sirens are heard moments later as police search for the suspects.

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An attorney for the family of a 13-year-old OH boy fatally shot by police is calling for a fair and independent investigation into his death.

Columbus police officer who shot killed boy is 9-year veteran