Cape police issue warning about BB guns resembling real firearms

Cape Girardeau police officers responded to a call this weekend of a juvenile waving a firearm around in public and stuffing it into his waistband.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found out the gun actually was a BB gun.

Instead of filing a report, officers took the boy home to his mother.

She had no idea he had a BB gun, according to Cape Girardeau Police Department public information officer Richard McCall.

Not long after, an officer saw a man in a park holding a gun. The officer investigated and found it also was a BB gun.

Officers did not issue a summons or citation in either case.

Both BB guns look real.

One looks like a modern .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol, and the second looks like 1911 pistol.

Neither features the orange cap federal law requires on a toy gun.

Officers took pictures of the BB guns and posted them on Facebook, adding if either had been pointed at an officer, “a split-second decision would have been required.”

The department asked residents to think twice about displaying a BB gun in public.

“You treat them all as if they’re real,” McCall said.

McCall could not say which officers responded to either BB gun call this weekend or when they happened because reports were not filed.

McCall said BB guns occasionally are found during police calls, but they are not common.

McCall praised the officers who calmly assessed both situations.

Police officers have shot children displaying BB or pellet guns in other parts of the country.

Tamir Rice, 12, in Cleveland is one of the most famous examples.

In November 2014, Rice was holding a pellet gun, and an officer in training, Timothy Loehmann, shot and killed him when Rice allegedly drew it.

On Jan. 10, 2015, Jamar Nicholson, 15, was shot in the back by a Los Angeles police officer who thought Nicholson had a real gun, even though it had an orange cap.

Nicholson survived.

Andy Lopez, 13, of Santa Rosa, California, was shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy in 2013.

He was holding a pellet gun that looked like an AK-47.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: 40 S. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.