Florida teen carrying airsoft gun shot in leg by officer
A Florida 14-year-old was shot in the leg by a police officer after reaching for his airsoft gun.
A Florida 14-year-old was shot in the leg by a police officer after reaching for his airsoft gun.
Tom Hackney, Director of Investigations, said that the The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office received a call on Friday night from a woman who said that a teenager with a BB gun was shooting at her window. Authorities investigated the call and found nothing, but the woman called a second time to say that the teenager had returned to shoot at her window again.
Officer Josh Livinggood walked through the woman’s home to see if any of the pellets had broken through the windows. When he did not find anything, the woman was escorting him out of her home when she spotted a teenager in the yard and identified him to Livinggood as the teen who had been shooting at her house.
Livinggood then approached the teen and asked him to show him his hands. Instead, the teen reached for his waist toward a replica 50-caliber pistol.
Livinggood then fired at the boy six times, hitting him in the leg.
“To say that six [shots] is too many – it’s too many, it’s not too many – the idea is to go home at the end of your shift,” Hackney said.
The boy continued to reach for the toy gun when Livinggood approached, but the officer was able to kick it away.
According to the JSO, police had interactions with the teenager before, for mental illness-related incidents.
Livinggood has been placed on administrative leave while the shooting is under investigation.
