COPS are being investigated after a boy, 13, was handcuffed by armed police who mistook his water pistol for a real gun.
The police watchdog has now opened a probe into the incident after Scotland Yard had cleared its own officers of misconduct.
iStock – GettyArmed cops mistook the 13-year-old boy’s water pistol for a real gun[/caption]
The teenager had been having a water fight with his younger sibling when a police officer on patrol reported a potential firearms incident.
He was surrounded by marksmen and handcuffed after being rammed off his bike by a police van in Hackney, east London.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct now says it will investigate after reconsidering an initial decision to let the Metropolitan Police do so.
The watchdog’s decision to investigate follows the boy’s mother raising concerns the incident would not have occurred had her son “been a white 13-year-old boy”.
The IOPC’s regional director for London250334 Charmaine Arbouin said: “This was clearly a distressing incident for this boy, his sister and mother and it is right that the complaint is investigated.
“We don’t have the resources to investigate all complaints that are sent to us by the police so when they make a referral we decide if the force should investigate it themselves or if we should take it on.
“Those decisions can sometimes be very finely balanced and that is what happened in this case. When the referral came to us initially, we took into account a number of factors when we decided the Met should investigate.
“This included doing what we believed was right for the family as we understood that their preference was to get it resolved with the force itself without involving us, and that the Met were comfortable with this.
“We were also confident, and remain confident, that the Met were taking the complaint seriously.”
The Alliance for Police Accountability has condemned the youngster’s treatment.
They said the water pistol was unmistakably a toy, with one of the fake weapons blue and white and the other pink and white.
A statement said: “The subsequent treatment of Child X and the horrific scene that unfolded was appalling.
A police van rammed Child X off his bicycle, knocking him to the ground.
“He was surrounded by armed police officers who pointed their firearms at him and arrested him on suspicion of being in possession of a firearm.
“He was de-arrested at the scene soon afterwards, once his mother had arrived and challenged what was happening, but she too was treated with contempt by the officers when she sought an explanation for their conduct from them.”
An internal probe by the Met Police found no misconduct had been committed by the officers involved.
A further complaint accusing them of racial bias is still being investigated by the force’s standards department.
Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway, in charge of policing for Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said he had apologised to the family.
He said: “This incident was understandably extremely distressing for the boy involved as well as the rest of his family.
“We know it may cause public concern and we want to help the public understand why we responded in the way we did.
“This does not in any way detract from our recognition of the trauma caused to the boy, for which I apologised soon afterwards to his family.”
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