Eleven-year-old, Omari Grant, and his friends were playing in a wooded area behind his home in Henry County, GA building a tree fort. The next thing they knew, two officers approached them, one with his gun drawn.
“I was thinking that I don’t want to be shot today, so I just listened to what they said,” Omari said.
Atlanta’s WSB-TV 2 reports that a neighbor called the police to complain about the boys cutting down tree limbs. Omari stated that the officer holding the gun used foul language and made him and his friends lay down on the ground with their legs spread apart.
“All he could get out at the time [he arrived home] was, ‘Mom, he had a gun in my face, Mommy. Mommy, he had a gun in my face,’ ” Omari’s mom, Janice Baptiste, told the news station. She says the young boy was crying.
Channel 2’s Aaron Diamant, who spoke with Omari and his mother, ran the incident by Edgar Dillard, whose wife made the initial 911 call.
“Yea, that’s pretty shocking to hear that a gun was pulled on a child,” Dillard said. The reason behind his wife’s call was due to “…falling hazards, tripping hazards, all types of hazards. So the number one concern was for the children and concern for the environment,” he added.
While no arrests were made, Baptiste has filed an excessive force complaint and the department is now investigating the officer’s actions.
BMWK–What are your feelings on the incident? Were their neighbors justified in calling the police?