Beech Grove man arrested after video shows toddler with handgun
BEECH GROVE, Ind. (WISH) — A Beech Grove man is charged with felony child neglect after neighbors at an apartment complex saw the young child waving a handgun and reported it to police.
Shane Osborne was arrested Saturday morning.
On Friday night, police were called to a Beech Grove apartment building after receiving a report of a child in a diaper playing with a gun in the hallway.
Conor Preer is one of the people who called 911. He told I-Team 8 about the frightening encounter with the child. “As I opened the door, he flipped the gun toward me, and I saw the barrel. The second I saw it, I knew it was real.”
They immediately called police. While waiting a family member peeked out into the hallway, Nicole Summers said, “I came back to the door and opened it to see where he was up the stair, and that was when he looked down and pointed it at me and said something like ‘Look what I got. Ha ha.’”
Police responded to the scene and spoke with several neighbors who said they saw the boy, believed to be either 2 or 3 years old, pointing the gun outside their doors.
Police knocked on the door where the child was staying and found Osborne in his underwear. He told police there was no gun in the home and assisted police in a brief search. Police did not see a gun during that search.
When police were leaving, one of the neighbors provided police with doorbell camera video of the child with the handgun.
The video, which is just over a minute long, shows the child coming out of an apartment with the gun and walking in a common area between apartments.
The child appeared to point the gun at multiple apartment doors, away from the building, and toward himself before going back inside the apartment.
No one else can be seen in the video.
Police went back into the apartment with Osborne. One officer asked the child where he put his “pew pew.” The boy led police right to the gun that was hidden inside of a desk.
Osborne was arrested. Online records showed Osborne was on Monday afternoon in the Marion County Jail, and scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
Beech Grove Police Department and the people who called 911 told I-Team 8 they’re grateful they situation didn’t end in tragedy.
“Thank God there was not one in the chamber. He could have killed himself or hurt someone else,” Summers said.
The response by the Beech Grove Police Department, including a search of Osborne’s apartment and discussions with witnesses, aired live on national television as part of the program “On Patrol: Live” on the Reelz network.
Statement
“I received notification from our police chief soon after this incident took place. As with all of you, I’m mortified with what took place and I’m so thankful that no one was hurt, especially the young child. I appreciate the quick action taken by the Beech Grove Police Department to secure the small child and the gun in question .I ask that the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office work tirelessly to secure charges and a conviction against the responsible parties, with maximum penalties. Society shouldn’t accept anything less.”
Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley
