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WEST VALLEY CITY — Newly released body cam video documents an intense gunpoint encounter with West Valley City Police officers and two teens armed with guns that turned out to be fake.
Police are pointing to the ordeal as an example of why it's difficult for officers to discern fake from real guns at times when the use of deadly force is possible.
The video, obtained by KSL through an open records request, offers a first-person police perspective of the exchange that took place the night of Sept. 11 on the grounds of Monroe Elementary.
"Our officers are responding to a 911 call from a citizen about two individuals that they see carrying guns," Chief Lee Russo said Tuesday.
The video starts with officers entering an area behind the school and spotting one teen partially hidden behind a brick column.
"Police department! Show me your hands! Drop it now!" yelled the officer wearing the body camera, noting a weapon he spotted.
Rather than come out, the teen is seen rolling back behind the column, as a second teen emerges from the left.
The first teen is then seen slowly approaching officers.
"Stick your hands in the air!" the officer exclaimed. "You're going to get yourself shot if you don't stop!"
The video shows the 15-year-old boys surrendering moments later, and police advancing to uncover three Airsoft guns.
Russo said the guns looked extremely similar to their real counterparts.
"Removing those tips, being out in a dimly-lit place at night where citizens perceive it is a real gun and call the police and we're going to respond – it's just not worth the risk," Russo said.
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The challenge of trying to determine if a gun is real is one that continues to plague law enforcement around Utah and across the country. Officers know the price for being wrong is extremely high, and their training tells them to treat every gun as a legitimate threat until proven otherwise, Winkler said.Russo said the actions of the teens upped the ante for officers, who believed and acted as if they were dealing with real guns when they arrived at the scene.
"[One teen is] taking up a defensive position against the officers that are now advancing toward him," Russo said. "You're surmising that there may be a deadly-force confrontation, or rounds are going to be exchanged."
"These are highly concerning and threatening behaviors these two exhibited toward these police officers," Russo added.
The teens, police said, were booked for dangerous weapons on school property, unlawful acts on school property and unlawful use of a projectile weapon.
"These manufacturers of these toys or these devices have made improvements in these weapons to make them look identical to a real weapon – right down to some of the features and levers you see on realistic guns," Russo said. "They're nearly indistinguishable. The only thing that they do is they make a safety cap, an orange barrel or something that makes it quickly recognizable."
These manufacturers of these toys or these devices have made improvements in these weapons to make them look identical to a real weapon – right down to some of the features and levers you see on realistic guns. They're nearly indistinguishable.
–Chief Lee Russo
Conversely, Russo said, there have been cases across the country where people have disguised real guns as fakes by painting the tips orange, adding to the difficulty of telling the difference.
Russo said he is hoping the release of the video helps to educate parents on the potential dangers.
"This toy quite frankly could be the last toy that their child ever plays with if they don't treat it with due respect and regard," he said. "Sometimes good kids make bad decisions and we just don't want to see a bad decision become a life-altering decision for someone."
Russo said he also wants lawmakers to look at potentially making it a crime to alter toy guns to look more real.
He noted the toll on families if an encounter becomes a matter of deadly force.
"Just imagine walking away from it knowing later 'I found out it was a toy,'" Russo said. "No family wants to live with that. No police officer wants to live with that. It will destroy more than just the family of the individual who was shot. It will destroy the police officer's family as well."
