[ad_1]
Agent Pete Casuccio gave a lecture to two boys after discovering one of them wearing a realistic quality BB gun in South Linden.
A meeting that could have become terribly tragic has become a learning time for a Columbus police officer and two South Linden boys.
Officer Pete Casuccio, a four-year-old veteran, was dispatched on Saturday for a report of two young men wielding what looked like a firearm.
Casuccio responded and stated that he had unsheathed his gun as he had been trained because it was not clear which one of the boys had the weapon or he was real.
When Casuccio began asking questions about the gun, one of the boys started to lift his shirt and pull on his belt.
"He started catching it and throwing it with his right hand," Casuccio said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "When he hit the sidewalk, it broke into three pieces and that's when I saw the CO2 cartridge and the plastic handle."
This action pushed Casuccio to give a life lesson to the boy of 11 and 13 years.
"This thing looked real, brother," Casuccio told the kids as the interaction was captured on his camera.
>> Video: On Saturday, October 13, 2018, agent Peter Casuccio was summoned to a ball race
Casuccio told the boys that he did not want to shoot them and tried to provide them with the background, explaining how the officers did not know that a gun that looked real was only a BB gun when they had to deal with a second.
"I did not know that it was a BB gun until it was on the sidewalk," Casuccio said to the boy's mother carrying the gun after having escorted the child home.
The mother turned to her son and said, "He could have shot you for that."
"The last thing I want to do is film an 11 year old man," said Casuccio. "Everything you want to do in this life could have been finished."
Since the Columbus police released the body video on Monday, she has drawn the country's attention. Casuccio was interviewed by CBS News and the information was passed on to CNN and other national news outlets.
Casuccio said that he was surprised by the attention.
"Everyone treats me as a hidden gem, but the overwhelming majority of (police) think and act the same way as me," he said. "I understand that it's good for occupation, but it's happening literally every day, everywhere."
Casuccio had taken other measures to help the young people in the Linden area he was patrolling to have a better impression of the police. Earlier this year, he helped organize free haircuts and gave school supplies to students preparing to return to school.
He said the Linden district, where he spent almost every quarter of his four-year career, is home to him.
"You feel that you have an impact when you come to work," Casuccio said. "In a perfect world, an 11- and 13-year-old should not be afraid of getting shot by a police officer, but at the same time, it's a scary world."
@bethany_bruner
Source link
