Police in Columbus, Ohio, fatally shot a black, 13-year-old boy who they say was being detained when he pulled out a gun, which turned out to be a BB gun.
According to reports, Columbus police officers responded to a call about an armed robbery on Wednesday night. Soon after the call, officers saw three people who matched the suspects’ descriptions and approached them. Two ran away and police followed them into an alley.
When officers went to take the two into custody, “one suspect pulled a gun from his waistband,” police officials said, adding that the gun had a laser sight mounted on it. The suspect, 13-year-old Tyree King, and was then shot “multiple times” by an officer.
King was pronounced dead a Columbia children’s hospital at 8:22 p.m. The officer, who has not been publicly identified, was not injured, police said.
The robbery investigation is still underway, and the other person who fled with King was interviewed and released. An internal investigation into the shooting is also underway.
The shooting is comparable to the police shooting of Tamir Rice in November 2014 in Cleveland, when a 12-year-old black boy was shot dead after his toy gun was mistaken for a real gun.
