Police body-worn camera shows boy’s access to gun in Beech Grove apartment
BEECH GROVE, Ind. (WISH) — The Beech Grove Police Department has released body-worn camera footage that led to arrest of 45-year-old Shane Osborne.
His 4-year-old son was the one caught on a doorbell camera waving a gun around an apartment building on Saturday.
When Beech Grove police first talked to Osborne, who was wearing only his underwear in his home, he denied there was a gun inside the apartment.
Police didn’t see the gun in plain sight, so they left.
Next, a neighbor showed police their doorbell video.
Confronted by police a second time about the gun, Osborne said he never brought a gun into the apartment, but that his cousin has. His cousin was not in the apartment when police visited.
On camera, Osborne gave police permission to search his apartment.
After several minutes of searching, the 4-year-old boy showed police the gun was hidden, in a roll-top desk. The child pointed to the gun and said, “pew, pew.”
Police can be seen handling the gun, taking the loaded clip out, and examining it. They confiscated the gun as evidence.
Police also arrested Osborne for felony neglect of a child.
Attorney Guy Relford told I-Team 8 the case will come down to what prosecutors can prove. “The ‘knowing’ or ‘intentional’ is where the kicker on this comes to. That’s not easy. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, this bad thing happened.’ It was clearly a bad thing.”
Relford specializes in gun cases. He said the prosecution will have to prove Osborne had knowingly and Intentionally put his child in harm’s way. “What exactly they did in terms of placing the gun there. What they knew about the child’s potential access. How difficult it was for the child to get to it? Those are all going to bear on that issue of what was, or was not, knowing and intentional.”
Osborne is also a felon. In 2012, he was convicted of theft, then a Class D felony in Indiana. So, it could be legal for him to possess a firearm if the crime was not violent, but federally no felon is allowed to possess a firearm.
Relford said, “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see the Department of Justice take a look at it and decide whether to prosecute him under federal law, and federal penalties are very stiff. You’re looking at potentially 10 years in federal prison for possession of a gun by any felon.”
The Marion County Prosecutors Office has not officially charged Osborne yet. He will make his first court appearance Thursday.