An Ohio police officer, his weapon drawn, approached two boys in a Columbus neighborhood over the weekend and told them to kneel before picking up what turned out to be a BB gun lying on the sidewalk.

What followed was not a shooting or an arrest but a lecture to two black youths, ages 11 and 13. Video of the Oct. 13 incident, which was recorded on Officer Peter Casuccio’s body camera and released on Monday by the Columbus police as a “life lesson” for young people, ignited an online discussion about policing, race and gun control in the United States.

“I could’ve killed you,” Officer Casuccio says in the video. “I want you to think about that tonight when you go to bed. You could be gone. Everything you want to do in this life could’ve been over.”