12-year-old carrying BB gun shot, killed by police

A 12-year-old boy in Cleveland, Ohio, who was shot by police officers Saturday afternoon died early Sunday morning.

The boy, whose name has not yet been released, was carrying a BB gun with the orange safety marker scratched off outside a recreation center when he was shot, Cleveland.com reports. In audio tapes released Sunday by the police, a man at a park next to the rec center called 911 and said there was a "guy with a gun pointing it at people," saying twice that the pistol was "probably fake" and the person was "probably a juvenile." This information was reportedly not passed on from the dispatcher to the responding officers.

The officers told the boy to put his hands in the air, police said, but instead he reached for the gun. He did not make any threats and there was no physical altercation between the boy and officers. The boy was hit at least once in the stomach, and rushed to a nearby hospital in serious condition. The shooting is being investigated, with the officers — one still in his first year on the force, one with a decade of experience — on administrative leave. --Catherine Garcia

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