Woman Points BB Gun at Cops – And Doesn't Get Shot
Elaine Rothenburg, a white woman, pointed her fake BB gun at officers in Torrington, Connecticut, yelling, "Boom, boom, boom," and was arrested last week, according to WFSB.com.
“What are you doing, shoot me!” and “What are you, scared?” Rothenburg asked the officers while standing in the doorway of the Torrington Police Department precinct. This resulted in a standoff with police, who had received 911 calls that the woman was causing a disturbance. She eventually threw the gun on the ground and told them it was fake. Rothenburg was taken into custody.
Rothenburg was charged with "second-degree breach of peace, first-degree threatening, 7 counts of reckless endangerment and interfering with police," WFSB reports.
Unfortunately, the case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was shot to death by Cuyahoga County Police, did not end the same way. The boy was sitting in front of a recreation center when police responded to a 911 call that Rice was holding a gun. The weapon was fake as well, but police did not take the time to decide whether he was innocent before shooting him.
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty announced that officers would not be charged in his killing Monday. He mentioned Rice's size as a reason why officers may have confused his age.
"If we put ourselves in the victim's shoes, as prosecutors and detectives tried to do, it is likely that Tamir, whose size made him look much older, and who had been warned that his pellet gun might get him into trouble that day, either intended to hand it over to the officers or show them it wasn't a real gun," said McGinty.
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(Photo: Torrington Police Department)
