Neighbors have been filmed shouting ‘don’t shoot, they’re kids’ after a police officer pulled a gun on six black teenage boys.
A store owner called the police in Jonesboro, Georgia, to accuse the boys of ‘stealing and all that’ before standing outside in the parking lot and ‘showing off’ what he thought was a gun.
A police officer responding to the call on Monday found the teenagers walking along the road.
Body camera footage released by police showed him holding up his gun and ordering the teenagers to stand still with their hands up. He said: ‘Don’t move. Please, y’all going to make me nervous. We chilling right now.’
A police officer responding to the call in Jonesboro, Georgia, on Monday found the teenagers walking along the road. Body camera footage released by police showed him holding up his gun and ordering the teenagers to stand still with their hands up
The officer was soon surrounded by a crowd of passersby who pulled over their cars to beg him to put down the deadly weapon. Shanelle Ladd, who filmed the tense standoff, told CNN: ‘My thought was I’m a mom. I have to protect these kids.’
Members of the crowd hysterically cried for the officer to stop pointing his gun at the group of teenagers. One shouted: ‘Why you got a gun out? They’re babies.’
As tensions escalated the crowd started shouting ‘don’t shoot. Please sir, don’t shoot. They’re kids. They’re just kids.’
As the crowd grew the officer called for backup and police cars started arriving from all directions. The teenagers, who one woman said couldn’t have been older than 15, were then patted down by two officers.
No gun was found.
‘Due to the allegation that the juveniles were in possession of a gun, the officer approached them with his duty weapon drawn and pointed at the juveniles,’ the police department said in a statement.
The storeowner made two calls to Clayton County Police officers to ask them to deal with five teenagers ‘with a gun’.
During one of the calls he said: ‘There are five kids came into my store they tried to steal and all that but they have a gun.’
Passerby Shanelle Ladd revealed there were around 30 people standing around the officer as he questioned the boys while holding his gun in the air for more than four minutes
When the operator asked if he needed an officer to come out, the owner said: Yeah no problem an officer can come out because they just tried to wave the gun on me.
‘They didn’t point the gun on me but they tried to show off the gun out in the parking lot.’
During a second call he said: ‘I just called a minute ago about a guy who had a gun. They came back again to the parking lot. They’re fighting outside in the parking lot.
‘Can you send someone. One of them has a gun, I don’t know what kind of gun it is but one of them tried to wave it.’
When the officer caught up with the teenagers they were walking down the street after throwing their bb gun into a hedge in the store’s parking lot.
The officer called for backup because of the crowd and police cars started arriving from all directions. The teenagers, who one woman said couldn’t have been older than 15, were then patted down by two officers
‘Listen to me, so you don’t get hurt,’ the officer can be heard saying in body camera footage. ‘Don’t move, don’t move. Please, I don’t want to hurt one of y’all.
‘What just happened at the store? Why does the guy think you have a gun?’
Shanelle revealed there were around 30 people standing around the officer as he questioned the boys while holding his gun in the air for more than four minutes.
‘Every black child is not a suspect. We should not be treated that way,’ she said.
When they were back outside the store the officer told the teenagers: ‘It’s five of y’all. It’s one of me. Nobody got hurt, y’all listened to me. That was great. I don’t want to die y’all.
‘Listen you are not in trouble,’ the officer can be heard telling one of the teens in the body camera video. ‘You can get hurt, you shouldn’t have BB guns. I got kids just like you.’
The teenagers were not arrested and no charges were filed, police said.
When the officer (pictured) caught up with the teenagers they were walking down the street after throwing their bb gun into a hedge in the store’s parking lot
‘I thought I was gonna die because I’ve seen all these black kids dying and to have myself in that, it was just crazy,’ Kamari Moore, one of the teens involved in the incident, told reporters on Tuesday.
Shanelle Williams posted a video of the confrontation to social media. She wrote: ‘This was today! Infront of my house Clayton County Georgia. The kids were shadow boxing near the conventient store and this is what happens!!!
‘We begged and pleaded for the officer to put his gun away. These little boys were no older than 15. 15?!’
It comes after tensions mounted over the last two months following the death of 36-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis. Police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes despite Mr Floyd gasping ‘I can’t breath’.
It sparked weeks of protest as demonstrators around the world marched to call for an end to police brutality and for a restructuring of the US police force.
The teenagers were not arrested and no charges were filed, police said. The storeowner made two calls to Clayton County Police officers to ask them to deal with five teenagers ‘with a gun’
Rapper T.I. said of the latest incident: ‘Why are only people of color, young black boys, young black girls being gunned down into the hands of policemen and using excuses like BB guns?
‘They have white boys, they got real rifles they go hunting, every day, every week with their grandparents and parents. They aren’t being held at gunpoint.’
Last month an Atlanta police officer stunned demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd by sympathizing with them and admitting they ‘have a right to be p***** off.’
As 500 National Guard soldiers dispatch to embattled cities and authorities clash with civilians, Officer Z. Murphy’s compassionate approach resonated with demonstrators.
Cell phone footage shows Officer Murphy telling a group of protestors he understands their anger because he’s had similar conversations about police brutality with his sons.
Officer Z. Murphy (pictured) spoke with protestors they ‘have a right to be p***** off’ over the death of George Floyd
‘I do, alright, I have a son who’s 31, I have a son who’s 15, alright, and I have to have these conversations with him all the time,’ Murphy says.
Officers at the scene were reportedly telling protesters to leave via loudspeakers, but later realized this was the wrong approach.
‘What was going on up here was wrong, that’s why we brought it to a stop. The loudspeaker, the yakking, and the yapping,’ he said.
‘We said pause, let these people remain here, let them stay on the street, let them express their grievances because you have a right to be p***** off.’
Murphy (pictured): ‘We said pause, let these people remain here, let them stay on the street, let them express their grievances…’
Murphy (pictured) was one of several officers who oversaw protests last month following three nights of demonstrations around the country
One protester then interjects that officers ‘over there, they don’t feel the same way.’
‘That’s why I told them to shut the f*** up,’ Murphy replied.
The group of protesters cheered and Murphy fist-bumped one of the men.
One person called out to Murphy to say that he needs to give his understanding energy to some of his fellow colleagues.
‘One at a time, my brother, one at a time,’ says Murphy.
George Floyd (pictured) said ‘I can’t breathe’ when Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for eight minutes
Following Floyd’s death, all four officers pictured in cell phone footage of the incident were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department
Cell phone video showed Floyd, handcuffed and pinned to the ground, with one police officer – Derek Chauvin – kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Floyd was unresponsive.
Derek Chauvin (pictured in his mugshot) was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter
Floyd, 46, is heard pleading: ‘I can’t breathe’, as he is arrested by four cops for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store. He later died at a local hospital.
Outrage sparked across the country and Minneapolis Mayor Mayor Jacob called for Chauvin to face criminal charges.
All four officers involved were subsequently fired. Chauvin was was officially charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter over Floyd’s death.
Protests were held in several US cities, including Minneapolis, New York City, Atlanta, Phoenix, Columbus, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Louisville.
Chaos exploded in Atlanta as demonstrators stormed and destroyed the CNN headquarters and fired a smoke bomb at cops trying to form a barrier to keep them out.
The National Guard was activated in Georgia late Friday night with as many as 500 troops deployed to Atlanta and a state of emergency issued following the destruction of CNN and looting at a luxury shopping mall.
Protestors in Atlanta, Georgia, vandalized the CNN headquarters building during demonstrations Friday night
Pictured: Thousands gathered in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park before marching through the city streets to protest police violence in Minneapolis, Minnesota
In addition to local authorities, the National Guard has been dispatched to cities like Minneapolis, St. Paul and Atlanta
Last month, widespread looting and arson was seen in Minneapolis and nearby St. Paul, in defiance of curfews there, and protests spilled into violence in 30 cities, as a federal agent in California and a protester in Detroit were shot dead.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had suggested domestic terrorists or foreign influences might be subverting peaceful protests and turning them to violence.
‘Last night is a mockery of pretending that this is about George Floyd’s death, or inequities, or historical traumas to our communities of color,’ said Walz, a Democrat, at a press conference.
‘The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd, it is about attacking civil society, instilling fear, and disrupting our great cities,’ Walz said.
‘As you saw this expand across the United States, and you start to see whether it be domestic terrorism, whether it be ideological extremists to fan the group, or whether it be international destabilization of how our country works,’ he continued.
Authorities said Floyd (pictured) was initially detained over allegations he tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store
Pictured: After a peaceful march of hundreds to the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Friday, May 29
Pictured: Demonstrators shout slogans against police officers standing guard in front of the Los Angeles Police Department next to the City Hall during protests over the Minneapolis fatal arrest of George Floyd
On Friday, May 29, Walz hinted that white supremacists and drug cartels may be fueling violence or taking advantage of the chaos in the rioting.
The chaos in Minneapolis was mirrored in cities across the nation, as National Guard units were called into Atlanta and put on standby in Washington DC, and two people were fatally shot in separate incidents in California and Detroit.
In Oakland, California, two officers with the Federal Protective Service – a part of Homeland Security created to protect government facilities – were shot, one fatally, in confrontations with protesters. Police are investigating.
A 19-year-old protestor was shot dead in Detroit, Michigan, and in Brooklyn, a police van was set ablaze and a mob tried to storm the 88th police precinct, and besieged the 84th precinct.
Demonstrators rocked a police van, set it ablaze, scrawled graffiti across its charred wreckage and set it on fire again as officers retreated. Blocks away, protesters used a club to batter another police vehicle.
President Trump blamed ‘ANTIFA and the Radial Left’ for the violence of some protests.