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Sgt. William Palmer said the teenager was shot Friday when he confronted police with the realistic-looking fake gun in an alley. The teen had been running from a car that was stolen earlier in the week.
The officers fired several shots, and the boy was hit once. The bullet grazed his face and he is expected to survive.
Meanwhile, police are pleading with parents to take replica guns away from their children.
“A young man almost lost his life because he was carrying one of these weapons,” Palmer said. “In the dark, in an alley, there’s absolutely no way we’re going to be able to tell the difference.”
The officers, Jeff Kading and Brandon Kitzerow, were placed on standard paid administrative leave while police investigate. Both men are members of the department’s SWAT team.
A third officer described as a witness was also placed on leave. His name wasn’t released.
Last year, St. Paul and Minneapolis passed ordinances banning realistic-looking replica guns in public.
St. Paul City Council Member Lee Helgen said the recent incident shows a need for the ordinance.
“Those are exactly the kind of fears you have,” he said. “The cops don’t know if it’s real or not, and they can’t be up there to inspect it. It (the ordinance) was put in place for that very kind of situation, where a tragedy could be avoided if someone didn’t have a replica firearm.”
The 15-year-old was in police custody on suspicion of assault on a police officer for confronting the officers with the fake gun, Palmer said. Police also arrested a 16-year-old boy believed to be the driver. He was booked on suspicion of fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle and driving a stolen motor vehicle. A 17-year-old girl who was a passenger was questioned and released.
As Palmer released details of the case to the media, he had four guns on a table — three of which were replicas. The only way to tell the fakes from the real thing was by picking them up, Palmer said.
“We want to encourage parents to not allow their children to have these kinds of weapons,” Palmer said. “They could get their son or daughter killed.”
In 2004, Minneapolis police shot and killed a 15-year-old boy who had a pellet gun that resembled a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun.
