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CLINTON — A recent brush with a toy gun in the dark could have cost a Clinton teenager his life.
Davis County sheriff's deputy Chris Benedict and his partner ran into the teen one night following a traffic stop in a Clinton neighborhood, near 1820 North and 630 West. All they could see was a shadowy figure and the barrel of a gun.
"I saw someone crouched by the van," Benedict recalled. "At that time, the deputy I was training stated that she saw a gun."
They pulled around for a closer look, from about a couple dozen yards away.
As I flipped around, I did see a gentleman crouched down by the van in a tactical position, and he was pointing a gun.
–Deputy Chirs Benedict
"As I flipped around, I did see a gentleman crouched down by the van in a tactical position, and he was pointing a gun," Benedict said.
The officers had to be careful, and their training kicked in.
"I called out the location, asked for additional units," Benedict said.
Then, the gun started to point toward his truck, and as officers pulled their weapons, calling for the boy to drop his, Benedict said he just turned around, keeping the gun at his side.
"As he was walking away, we were closing the distance, giving verbal commands to drop the weapon," Benedict said.
But it wasn't until the officers got much closer that they could see the boy was holding a plastic toy gun with an orange tip. The boy also has Down's syndrome.
"I think they overreacted, I really do," said Diane Taylor, the boy's mother. She said she can't help but wonder if officers reacted too quickly.
"I know there's not a lot of time, in some circumstances, but that's why there's a lot of innocent people that get killed," Taylor said.
It was midnight, and her son had managed slip out.
"My son was scared to death, telling me he didn't hardly say a word.'
Still, toy or not, deputies say in the dark it all seems very real.
"Going through my mind is that this was a threat to mine and my partner's lives," Benedict said.
Deputies say parents need to be aware that those real- looking guns — even the ones with orange tips can be dangerous — especially since some criminals will paint orange tips on their real weapons.
