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Police: Juveniles not facing charges after chasing autistic 12-year-old with BB gun in Columbus park

Columbus police say they were able to get the juveniles to put the BB gun down before anyone got hurt.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two juveniles are not facing charges after Columbus police say they chased an autistic 12-year-old boy with what appeared to be a gun.

Police were called to Livingston Park near Nationwide Children's Hospital after 911 calls about the incident.

When officers got to the park around 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, police say they learned the gun was actually a BB gun. However, it had an extender on it and the juveniles had a real bullet.

“This could have been another tragically national incident where an officer could have potentially shot and killed a kid who had a fake gun,” said Columbus Police Sergeant James Fuqua.

Columbus police say they were able to get them to stop and put the gun down before anyone was hurt.

“They were threatening this 12-year-old kid. It's really sad because this 12-year-old kid also suffered from autism. Imagine the terror in this 12-year-old's mind,” Fuqua said. 

In the last four months, Fuqua says Columbus police have confiscated 267 guns from people ages 14-23. One out of every six of those were stolen.

Fuqua says it appears the juveniles understood just how dangerous of a situation they created.

“They absolutely got the message. They were very remorseful. They realized they made what could have potentially been a deadly mistake,” Fuqua said.

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