Members of the public became concerned and called police on Wednesday at about 2 p.m. when a 17-year-old male was seen walking in the area of Tabor Boulevard and 1st Avenue carrying a handgun in plain view. Mounties saw the same thing when they came to the area and confronted the youth with guns drawn.
"The recovered gun turned out to be an imitation pistol-style, pellet gun that had the orange tip painted over," said Prince George RCMP spokesman Cpl. Craig Douglass referring to the bright tip placed by some manufacturers on the barrel of replica guns to differentiate them from real firearms. "Someone had actually gone to the trouble to cover that over - make it look even more real - and this wasn't a kid playing cops and robbers."
The suspect gave no physical resistance to arresting officers but, said Douglass, "He wasn't the most pleasant to deal with. Apparently he made verbal comments that were disconcerting to the members involved in the arrest."
He was scheduled to appear in Prince George Provincial Court on Thursday. He cannot be named due to his age.
This was the third substantiated report in the past two weeks of replica guns where police were called to intervene.
"I really commend the people who phone these things in, because they too are not assuming the object is a toy. You just can't unless it's squirting water or [is] some bright colour," said Douglass. "The police have a duty to protect the public and cannot assume that these types of reports are of imitation guns. We must assume these guns are real."
Charges can be laid even when the object is not a real firearm. A pellet gun can pose a real risk of physical harm, and even a plastic toy can be considered a weapon in the eyes of the courts if used in a way that causes someone to believe it is real. When police come into contact with an unverified item that looks like a gun, said Douglass, it can't be discounted until it is closely inspected.
"We are reasonable people, we know sometimes people don't think things all the way through and have a paintball gun or a pellet gun mistaken for the real thing in a public place, and we take into account the whole situation, but the way you handle an imitation firearm can play a big role in how the public perceives it and in how we perceive it, and it can be taken very, very seriously," he said. "For the safety of the public, it has to be."
