Today a child pointed a toy gun at me

Today I pulled into my apartment complex after running some errands, and I came to a stop sign. I wanted to turn right. About that time, a boy, who obviously saw me coming, walked right out into the road, so that I couldn't turn. Despite him being completely disrespectful and unsafe, I was patient. This was definitely not the first time kids had done this sort of thing. Then it happened. While walking across the road, knowingly in my way, he raised up the toy gun that he was holding, which was realistic in shape and color, with no orange tip, pointed it at me multiple times, and murmured something that sounded like I should stop or he was going to shoot me. I'm terrible at guessing age, but I would imagine he was 12 or less.

I didn't stop and confront the boy, nor do I know at which apartment he stays, or who his parents are.

I plan on bringing this issue up to management, but, I wanted to see if anyone had advice as to how best approach or handle this issue - how to bring it up to management, or if you think I should do something else entirely. Obviously I want to be careful about how I approach the issue, as I don't want to spur management to make any sort of "anti-gun" policies as a result of this child's terrible behavior.

Call 911........file a report......wait. This could have ended badly if it had been a weaker soul. Do record the incident both by writing your own recollection and filing with the pee dee. It may happen again and they should pursue.

Don't do anything. Write down verbatim what happened and keep it in a safe place. From this point on you need to video your comings and goings.

My son in-law has a dash cam that runs all the time.

Another tragedy waiting to happen. Think Cleveland. Should someone call the police and they do arrive on the scene they will surely take care of the problem. I think his parent(s) need to be made aware of his behavior. .....before they have a funeral to arrange.

Ken56 said:

Another tragedy waiting to happen. Think Cleveland. Should someone call the police and they do arrive on the scene they will surely take care of the problem. I think his parent(s) need to be made aware of his behavior. .....before they have a funeral to arrange.

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Not my child. My child is a angel....

Whaaat ? Call the management? Why? You want to turn into a lizard?

davidmcbeth said:

Whaaat ? Call the management? Why? You want to turn into a lizard?

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I don't get the lizard reference... But, I'm here to ask the proper course of action.

I feel that this behavior was too egregious to just not do anything at all, as this seems to just be the latest and worst behavior, but far from the only bad behavior that kids have been engaging in around here. I don't care that much about what happened... If I thought it was just a one-time thing, I'd probably just forget about it. But I know it isn't just a one-time thing. There's a pattern of bad behavior, and this incident indicates the behavior is only getting worse. At some point these kids are going to cross a line, back over which they cannot return.

On the other hand, obviously management can't do anything about bad parenting.

color of law said:

...a dash cam that runs all the time.

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This. They are CHEAP now! You can have a basic one for $20 that works just fine.

https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_n...ash+cam&ie=UTF8&qid=1463628629&rnid=386442011

Now, this doesn't stop incidents, but it does help identify participants afterward, and gives you video clips to share with the Media. The Media love video.

at the moment stealhy you have a "this occurred - no i didnt do that" type of situation as well as loss of timeliness of being after the fact.

sad fact is you, while obviously concerned for the child's safety in future encounters, will lose in the end as mgmt wont get involved, parents will side w/their offspring - quit stirring up trouble for us w/mgmt, etc., and the nice LEs will say - tks we'll keep an eye out for future incidents!!

the child got away with the shock & awe attention they were seeking by pulling the stunt and will continue the behaviour. as you stated, this is not new behaviour, but practiced, being refined behaviour to see reaction by adults to the toy.

yes, cam would have been nice to show everyone the antics but the results would have been the same...nobody cares! oh, after you show film at seven, want to take bets how long it is before said cam disappears fm your vehicle?

future encounters...immediately notify the nice LEs so there is a offical report, bring the incident up to mgmt w/report in hand, this enables mgmt to evict bad tenants based on their documented activities on the complex.

ipse

Not a darn thing you can do, at this juncture, it is a "he said, the little kid said."

Do you know the kid lives in the/your complex? Or, is he frequent/daily visitor?

If a similar incident occurs in the future it will be most beneficial if it were recorded.

If a future incident does occur and it is recorded call a cop and provide the "evidence" of the serious crime.

I appreciate you all offering advice.

I heeded the advice to go ahead and let the PD know about what happened. I'm thankful for the advice here because to me, on the one hand it seems like such a trivial thing, but on the other it seems like such a serious thing.

I also ordered a couple of cheap cameras. I've been needing one for OCing anyway, so this was just a good kick in the pants to go ahead and order it along with a cheap dash cam.

Thanks again guys.

That's scary on multiple levels. That would be worse if you were walking. It would be horrible to shoot a kid, even such a dumb one, and find out it was a toy gun. It would be even worse to not shoot a kid and find out the hard way it was a real one.

I don't know the solution for a stranger to the family. The parents should be sitting the kid down and showing him videos of other stupid kids getting shot with real guns for pointing fake guns at people and teaching them how stupid and dangerous that is, but then usually the kinds of parents kids like that have are usually the kind to blame everyone but the stupid kid for getting shot in those situations.

Tough thing to deal with in your own neighborhood.

stealthyeliminator said:

I appreciate you all offering advice.

I heeded the advice to go ahead and let the PD know about what happened. I'm thankful for the advice here because to me, on the one hand it seems like such a trivial thing, but on the other it seems like such a serious thing.

I also ordered a couple of cheap cameras. I've been needing one for OCing anyway, so this was just a good kick in the pants to go ahead and order it along with a cheap dash cam.

Thanks again guys.

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10 seconds of seeing a little kid playing with a toy gun turned you into a lizard... WOW

davidmcbeth said:

10 seconds of seeing a little kid playing with a toy gun turned you into a lizard... WOW

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If by "lizard" you mean "reasonable person who isn't so disconcerted that I would completely isolate myself from peace keeper resources just because they're currently a government organization" then nothing has turned me, I've always been pretty reasonable.

You've yet to explain what this "lizard" reference means. It's a little annoying that you've called me a name twice now and have yet to explain it.

I do not seek to interfere in any of my neighbors' lives - quite the opposite. My record, or lack thereof, is evidence of that. If my neighbors begin to interfere with my life, however, I have to draw the line somewhere. I believe I've taken very minimal, non-confrontational, and reasonable action.

If you feel the need to call me a name again, please at least do me the courtesy of explaining it.

stealthyeliminator said:

...You've yet to explain what this "lizard" reference means. It's a little annoying that you've called me a name twice now and have yet to explain it. ...

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I wouldn't work yourself into a lather.

In my humble opinion, the value of an individual's posts is inversely related to the frequency of them - if you get my drift.

question. How do you know it was a toy?

follow up question. If you know it was a toy why the great concern?

It seems my posts are about as valueless as can be achieved then.

the value of an individual's posts is inversely related to the frequency of them

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Equates to:

Value of post goes down as the frequency (number of) posts increase.

Definition of frequency - plural frequencies
1: the fact or condition of occurring frequently

2a: the number of times that a periodic function repeats the same sequence of values during a unit variation of the independent variable
b: the number, proportion, or percentage of items in a particular category in a set of data

3: the number of repetitions of a periodic process in a unit of time: as
a: the number of complete alternations per second of an alternating current
b: the number of complete oscillations per second of energy (as sound or electromagnetic radiation) in the form of waves

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Parsing is not required given the plain reading of the words used...if you know what I mean.

stealthyeliminator said:

If by "lizard" you mean "reasonable person who isn't so disconcerted that I would completely isolate myself from peace keeper resources just because they're currently a government organization" then nothing has turned me, I've always been pretty reasonable.

You've yet to explain what this "lizard" reference means. It's a little annoying that you've called me a name twice now and have yet to explain it.

I do not seek to interfere in any of my neighbors' lives - quite the opposite. My record, or lack thereof, is evidence of that. If my neighbors begin to interfere with my life, however, I have to draw the line somewhere. I believe I've taken very minimal, non-confrontational, and reasonable action.

If you feel the need to call me a name again, please at least do me the courtesy of explaining it.

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Now what a man would have done is this : nothing.

A 1/2 lizard would have gone over and talked to the kid's parents (maybe finding out that the kid is six yrs old).

Anyone who thinks you did OK calling the cops on a kid just playing has also outted themselves as lizards ... so you have some company in that.

Unfortunately, there is no known cure for being a lizard, although lizards can cure themselves somehow. I have never been a lizard so I cannot offer first hand knowledge.

Non-confrontational ? Calling the cops is hardly that. How many times have cops come up to me saying "someone filed a complaint" wherein I respond "Yeah? I'm right here, they can come over and talk to me if they want.".

davidmcbeth said:

... Non-confrontational ? Calling the cops is hardly that. How many times have cops come up to me saying "someone filed a complaint" wherein I respond "Yeah? I'm right here, they can come over and talk to me if they want.".

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Audio/video or it did not happen. Even one example from the "how many times"...I'll check back later.