Arizona boy, 14, carrying airsoft gun shot dead by officer

The shooting happened within seconds. The police officer draws his gun as he tries to get the suspect’s attention. He sees the male suspect running. He orders him to show his hands, but the latter keeps running. He fires two shots, striking the suspect - who turns out to be a 14-year-old boy carrying a replica handgun.

The Tuesday confrontation was captured on the police officer’s body camera, the footage from which was released this week by the police department in Tempe, Arizona, amid growing outcry over the boy’s death. Local activists describe the shooting as the murder of a child, whose mother screamed “Necesito justicia!” (“I need justice”) repeatedly at a Thursday night rally in front of the police headquarters.

Officials, meanwhile, urge the community to withhold judgment while they investigate what Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir described as a “rapidly evolving situation.”

“I must begin with expressing my deepest condolences to the young man’s family. … I am very sorry for their loss,” Moir said, reading from a piece of paper at a news conference Friday. Displayed next to her were several enlarged photographs: the alley where the teen was shot, the gray pickup truck where the police officer found him, the replica handgun authorities say he was carrying.

The shooting happened in the middle of the day Tuesday. Officer Jaen - Tempe police did not release his first name - was sent to an alley in a neighborhood where a 911 caller had reported that someone in a gray pickup truck parked behind his house was “taking stuff” from a backyard.

Jaen parked in front of the pickup truck, got out of his marked car, and hid behind a large trash can. He saw the suspect moving inside the truck, then the front passenger door opened.

“Hey,” the officer said, drawing his gun.

Four seconds later, the officer started running.

“Let me see your hands!” he screamed as the suspect ran.

Another four seconds later, he fired his first shot, and then another.

“998, 998, shots fired, shots fired!” the officer screamed, using the police code for an officer-involved shooting. “He’s got a handgun,” he said later.

The officer found the teen down the alley, lying between the street and the sidewalk, Moir, the police chief, told reporters Friday. One bullet hit his shoulder area; another struck a wall at the end of the alley. The firearm he was carrying was a 1911 replica model airsoft gun, Moir said.

The teen, identified by family members and local activists as Antonio Arce, died at a hospital.

Moir said the teen had just stolen the Airsoft gun and other items from inside the pickup truck. Two witnesses had also reported seeing the suspect with a gun in his hands, Moir told reporters.

The officer involved in the shooting has been placed on leave while criminal and administrative investigations are ongoing. Prosecutors will decide whether he should face criminal charges. Jaen has been a police officer for 17 years, 14 of which he spent with Tempe police, Moir said. The teen’s death raised familiar questions about when and how soon should police officers use fatal force.