Moscow - A US police detective shot a teenage boy holding a replica gun in Baltimore, Maryland, Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.
According to local media reports, the incident happened on Wednesday at an event commemorating the one-year anniversary of protests over the death of Freddie Gray, an African-American man who died last year in Baltimore after suffering a spinal injuries while in police custody.
“I’ve been a police officer for 25 years and there’s no way on this earth that I could tell you from looking at that gun that it wasn’t real... It’s a 13-year-old young man, that’s not lost on me, however... I don’t know why this young man chose to flee on foot when he was approached by two Baltimore police officers,” Davis told reporters, as quoted by the USA Today newspaper.
The Baltimore Sun newspaper reported, citing the victim’s mother, that he was 14 and was shot once in the shoulder and once in the leg.
Since 2014, the United States has seen numerous protests following high-profile cases of police brutality around the country.
The incidents have triggered a national debate about racial inequality and police violence against minority communities.
In November 2014, a police officer shot and killed a 12-year-old African-American child who was playing with a toy gun in Cleveland, Ohio.
A grand jury decided not to charge the officers involved in the incident.
Sputnik