Birmingham police use stun gun on 13-year-old with gun
BIRMINGHAM, AL Aug 17 2018
Birmingham police say they had to use a stun gun on a 13-year-old boy near Green Acres Middle School Wednesday morning.
Police say they got a call of a person with a gun around 8:20 a.m.
When police went to the area they saw the child walking and an officer told him to put his hands in the air, but police say the child reached into his pocket and that is when the officer used a stun gun on him.
“When he arrived, there were two subjects. One of them fit the description given of the person with the weapon,” says Birmingham Police Sgt. Johnny Williams. “One of the subjects decided to put his hands in his pockets. As he started to put his hand in his pockets, the offered deployed his Taser striking the subject, taking him to the ground.”
Officers found a gun in the child’s pocket.
“Thankfully it turned out the way it did because this could have ended up horribly for that young man, or the officer, or the other young man who was also with him,” Sgt. Williams says.
The child was treated by medics and taken by police to the hospital to get checked out.
Though the location of the incident is just a few blocks from Green Acres Middle School, police say the teen had no connection with the school.
“It’s just crazy,” says Kayla Roney.
She lives in the community where it happened and says the young man who was Tased is the same age as her son. She is outraged to hear a 13-year-old, or any child, has a gun.
“Letting them have access to a gun where they can harm themselves or someone else is not a good thing,” she says.
It’s a standard procedure with the Birmingham Police Department that whenever an officer deploys their Taser, internal affairs conducts an investigation to determine if that officer was correct in doing so.
Police say the charges are pending against the child who is a runaway from DHR custody. The officer that Tased the teen is back on patrol.
WBRC
