US Police Shoot Dead 12-Year-Old Boy Holding Toy Gun

Local Editor

US Police shot and killed a 12-year-old boy who was in a playground waving around what turned out to be a toy gun in Cleveland in the US state of Ohio, officials and reports said on Sunday.

Officers called to the scene Saturday fired at the boy twice, hitting him at least once in the stomach, after reports that he was pointing a gun at people.

Audio released of a 911 call made to police details the caller saying the gun was "probably fake."
Meanwhile. a Cleveland police statement said: "Upon arrival on scene, officers located the suspect and advised him to raise his hands. The suspect did not comply with the officers' orders and reached to his waistband for the gun.

"Shots were fired and the suspect was struck in the torso," the statement said.

He died early Sunday, local newspaper The Plain Dealer reported.

One of the police officers was in his first year in the force, it said.

The victim has not been named.

The shooting comes with a grand jury set to announce if a white policeman will be indicted for the fatal shooting of an unarmed African American teenager in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson in the state of Missouri.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team