...All three ran as the police stopped their patrol car. Abarca, a three-year veteran, encountered one of the participants standing behind a parked van on the side of the street, police said.
Judging from the person's size — 5 feet 7 and 200 pounds, according to police — Abarca believed he was a young adult.
The officer shined his flashlight on him and gave commands for him to surrender, according to an LAPD news release.
At that point, "the subject refused to comply with the officers' commands and instead produced what was later determined to be a replica Beretta 92F handgun," the release states.
Abarca, unable to see the orange tip of the gun's barrel that distinguishes it as a replica, shot and wounded what turned out to be a 13-year-old boy, police said.....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd-pellet-gun-20101219,0,7799943.story
...Los Angeles Fire Department personnel responded and took the boy to a hospital, where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition.
After the shooting, Abarca and rescue personnel were stunned to learn that the wounded male was, in fact, just 13. The other two youths, ages 13 and 14, were detained without incident after dropping their fake handguns. Three faux weapons were recovered.
Detectives from the LAPD’s force investigation division responded to the scene. Police said they had determined that the subjects had been playing in the dark street, shooting pellets at one another with the fake handguns. They said they anticipated that no criminal charges would be filed against any of the three juveniles.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...tragedy-for-all-involved-chief-beck-says.html