Well this one was painted black.
Probably because they kids thought they looked like pansies playing with a neon
toy gun. But yeah, you are right.
Charles Mims
Ya
know around here all the toy guns are painted like neon colors and stuff so that
you can tell they are toys. Not to mention, something I just picked up on....the
woman that called the police said he was was waving a plastic gun.....why would
she call the cops on a kid playing with a plastic gun.
I hope she sues them to heck and back and wins, she deserves it. Anyone
wanna bet how long it will be before toy guns are banned?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 6:31
AM
Subject: [Sndbox] This is absolutely
ludicrous
9-year-old arrested for waving toy gun
|
MICHAEL C. FITZPATRICK
, Morning Journal Writer |
10/28/2003 |
|
LORAIN -- A 9-year-old boy was arrested at gunpoint and
handcuffed Saturday because he was waving a toy gun over his head
while seated on a bench outside a store, according to a Lorain police
report.
His mother, Tamyka Saunders of Sheffield Lake,
said her son, Thomas Clark Jr., told Lorain police when they
approached him outside a Broadway business that the gun was a toy. An
officer aimed his weapon at the boy's head, ordered him to the ground,
handcuffed him and arrested him for juvenile delinquency by reason of
inducing panic, according to the police report.
Saunders, 28,
was also charged with obstruction of justice and resisting arrest when
she pleaded with police not to arrest her son and to give him a
warning, according to a police report.
''He doesn't deserve
this. He is not a bad kid at all. That's what I was trying to explain
to the officer. It's just not fair,'' Saunders said.
Saunders
was getting her hair done at the Northern Institute of Cosmetology on
Broadway near Seventh Street when the incident began.
Saunders
said she and her son were spending the day together . Saunders said
her son got his hair cut first, and then he went outside to play while
waiting on her.
A passer-by who saw the boy playing just before
noon with a gun -- described by police as a black plastic toy gun --
called police, who responded to the scene and found the boy ''waving
what appeared to be a black handgun above his head,'' according to a
police report. The report said the gun was spray painted black and
resembled a genuine gun.
At that point, Officer Joe Novosielski
confronted the boy at gunpoint, ordering him to drop the gun and then
lie on the ground, the report said.
Thomas, who his mother said
has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, said he was
frightened by the incident.
Lorain police said Novosielski
handled the situation properly.
''Obviously, someone got scared
and called the police. Nobody driving down the street could tell it
was a toy gun, so that's where the panic comes in. We charge that to
anyone doing that,'' Lt. Robert Poli said.
''We're not going to
tolerate anyone walking down the street, sitting on a bench ... if
he's waving a gun around,'' Poli said. ''You don't know it's a toy
gun.''
Saunders said police were not even going to come inside
the cosmetology institute to tell her they were arresting her son. She
said she learned from another woman her son was being arrested.
Saunders, wearing curlers in her hair, said she raced out to
the police car to attempt to intervene on her son's
behalf.
''He (Novosielski) snatched me by the arm and cuffed
me. People were just walking down the street shaking their heads. I
did not cuss at him, and I did not yell at him, because I'm not that
type of person. I feel I'm the one that was disrespected,'' Saunders
said of her arrest.
When informed her son was being arrested,
Saunders attempted to pull her son away from the officer but moved
away when told to, according to the report.
Police said
Saunders pleaded with them not to arrest her son and to ''just give
him a warning,'' according to the report. She also told police her son
''was just playing'' and that he didn't point the gun at anyone before
asking police, ''Don't you have anything better to
do?''
Saunders was eventually arrested after refusing to move
away from the cruiser where her son had been placed, the report said.
The officer told her to finish her business at the beauty salon and
then come to the station to pick up her son, according to the
report.
She is free on $750 bond and is scheduled to appear in
Lorain Municipal Court today. The report of Thomas' arrest was
forwarded to the juvenile court system, according to the police
report.
Lorain County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Mark
Hastings said the report had not been received yet.
|
©The Morning
Journal 2003 |
________________________________
Changes to your subscription
(unsubs, nomail, digest) can be made by going to
http://sandboxmail.net/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net
|