Last Thursday, a Utah police officer drew his gun on a 10-year-old Black boy while he was playing on his family’s front lawn.
“I was just playing, running,” 10-year-old DJ Hrubes said to Salt Lake City’s Fox 13. “And he pulled a gun out.”
The Wood Cross Police said they misidentified DJ as a potentially armed subject who they were in the midst of searching for after a shooting Thursday afternoon, according to the Fox 13 report.
“This kid was just in the area at the wrong time,” Wood Cross Police Lt. Adam Osoro told reporters, adding that the department had “minimal information” on who they were looking for.
DJ’s mom Jerri Hrubes, who is white, said that this incident was matter of race.
“I think it was an overzealous cop who just saw somebody who wasn’t white and just jumped to conclusions,” Jerri Hrubes told Fox 13.
According to the report, the police have tried to reach out to the Hrubes family multiple time, but Jerri Hrubes said she has not been contacted. The police have also reported that they have no intention of investigating the officers actions any further.
“They need to be held responsible, I mean he’s a child, you can definitely tell he’s a child,” she said to Fox 13.
“I really thought they were going to shoot my little boy.”