could see that he was reaching into his crotch area, then that
he was trying to reach toward his left thigh area, as if he
was trying to grab something that was falling down his pants
leg.
He was starting to turn around toward me as he was
fishing around in his pants. He was looking right at me and
I was telling him not to move: “Stop! Don’t move! Don’t
move! Don’t move!” My partner was yelling at him too:
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” As I was giving him commands, I drew
my revolver. When I got about five feet from the guy, he
came up with a chrome .25 auto. Then, as soon as his hand
reached his center stomach area, he dropped the gun right
on the sidewalk. We took him into custody, and that was
that.I think the only reason I didn’t shoot him was his age.
He was fourteen, looked like he was nine. If he was an
adult I think I probably would have shot him. I sure
perceived the threat of that gun. I could see it clearly, that
it was chrome and that it had pearl grips on it. But I knew
that I had the drop on him, and I wanted to give him just a
little more benefit of a doubt because he was so young