Officer Confronts Boys Carrying BB Gun: ‘Do You Think I Want to Shoot an 11-Year-Old?’

Police in Columbus, Ohio, released video footage after an officer got a call about two young males with a gun.

Officer Peter Casuccio arrived on the scene, and he found an 11-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy with a realistic BB gun, CBS News reported. He then told them about the perils of carrying around a BB gun, saying he could have shot them.

“Listen, here’s the deal, OK? You had to show somebody, because how did they know you had it?” Casuccio asks the two. One of the boys said he was just holding the gun.

“This is getting kids killed all over the country,” he said of the incident.

“You can’t do that dude, in today’s world. Listen, that thing looks real,” the officer said.

He then told them why holding such an item could be dangerous.

“Do you think I want to shoot an 11-year-old? Do you think I want to shoot a 13-year-old?” the officer asked them. The boys reply: “No, sir.”

“But do I look like the type of dude that would shoot somebody?” he asks the two. The boys then reply: “Yes, sir.”

According to CBS News, he then spoke with the mother of the boys. “I pull up on them, and I’m not going to lie to you, doing cop stuff, I drew up on them,” Casuccio told the mother. “He could’ve shot you for that, you know that?” the mother is heard saying.

“Regardless of what people say about the dudes wearing this uniform... we care,” Officer Casuccio said. He added: “The last thing I ever want to do is shoot an 11-year-old man. Because your life hasn’t even gotten started yet. And it could’ve ended. Because I wouldn’t have missed.”

“I could’ve killed you. I want you to think about that tonight when you go to bed. You could be gone. Everything you want to do in this life could’ve been over,” Casuccio said.

“A lesson was learned,” the Columbus Division of Police said, NBC News reported.