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A Black teenage boy carrying a replica gun was shot twice by police in Baltimore on Wednesday, after the officers mistook the pistol for a real firearm.
The boy’s mother Volanda Young identified him as 14-year-old Dedric Colvin, the Baltimore Sun reported. Young said her son was shot once in the leg and once in the shoulder.
The detective who shot the boy wrongly thought he was carrying a semiautomatic pistol, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The incident began at around 4:00 p.m local time in East Baltimore, as the boy carried a Daisy brand PowerLine Model 340 spring-air pistol, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Two plainclothes detectives spotted the boy and thought he had a real gun. The detectives got out of their car, identified themselves as police officers, and told the boy to stop.
The boy ran away from the detectives, who chased him for more than 150 yards, before one of the detectives opened fire.
Police said the boy’s gun was a replica of a Beretta pistol, and the officers had no way of knowing it was not a real firearm, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The shooting comes as Baltimore marked one year since riots over the death of local man Freddie Gray in police custody.
The incident is similar to the shooting of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy by police in 2014. The city of Cleveland this week agreed to pay US$6 million to the family of Tamir Rice, who was shot while holding a toy gun in a public park.
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