This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Police in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday shot and killed a 13-year-old boy who was carrying a BB gun, authorities said.

The air gun which Tyre King was holding had a laser sight. An officer mistook it for a lethal firearm, police said. The boy was shot multiple times and died in a Columbus children’s hospital.

Authorities said officers were responding to a report of a robbery in which several people, one carrying a gun, approached a man and demanded money. Police said officers spotted three people, including Tyre, who matched a description of the robbers.

Police killings down slightly year-on-year – The Counted monthly update Read more

The officers approached the group and Tyre and one of his companions fled, police said. Tyre was shot multiple times after allegedly pulling the BB gun from his waistband.

The city’s mayor and police chief spoke to reporters on Thursday morning, promising a thorough investigation.

Columbus mayor Andrew Ginther called the boy’s death “troubling”.

“Any loss of life is tragic but the loss of a young person is particularly difficult,” he said.

Police chief Kim Jacobs confirmed the basic police account of the shooting and said Tyre was carrying a gun that looked “practically identical” to the guns carried by Columbus police. The shooting will be investigated by Columbus detectives and presented to a grand jury by a local prosecutor, officials said. The grand jury will decide whether to charge the officer involved.

Later on Thursday, authorities identified the officer who shot Tyre as Bryan Mason, who according to the Columbus Dispatch shot and killed an armed man in 2012. No charges were filed against him in that shooting.



The death of Tyre, whose racial identity was not immediately disclosed by authorities, has similarities with the police shooting in a Cleveland park of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014. Tamir, who was black, was carrying a pellet gun; officer Timothy Loehmann opened fire moments after pulling up to the park.

Dispatchers had received a 911 call reporting that someone was pointing a gun at people in the park, the caller adding that the gun was “probably fake” and the carrier was “probably a juvenile”.

Tamir’s death was one of a number of high-profile police killings of African Americans that spurred protests across the country regarding the disproportionate number of black people killed by police.

According to The Counted, the Guardian’s project to track every person killed by police in 2015 and 2016, Tyre is one of 14 children killed by police so far this year.

At least 34 people who were killed by police this year were carrying non-lethal firearms, such as pellet or toy guns, that authorities mistook for lethal weapons.

