The Metropolitan police have admitted that a 13-year-old boy playing with a water pistol was rammed off his bike by armed police, knocked to the ground and officers pointed their submachine guns at him.
The Met has apologised for the incident, in which the boy was also handcuffed, which happened in broad daylight in Hackney, east London, in July.
The mother of the boy, who has not been named said she and her family had been left “broken” by the trauma and felt insulted by an officer who called her “aggressive” at the scene. One officer claimed her son had been lucky.
The Met accepts the boy, who is black, suffered trauma. His mother said his race led to his treatment by armed officers and brief arrest on suspicion of having a firearm.
The Met said it was called to a report of a gun in the street and was obliged under policy to treat all firearms as dangerous until proven otherwise. It said no misconduct issues had been identified.
The boy had been playing near his home with a blue plastic water pistol with his sister, who had a pink one.
At 3.45pm on Wednesday 19 July police say an officer “saw a male on a bicycle pointing what was believed to be a handgun at a young girl”. Armed officers were called, with two armed response vehicles attending the scene.
The Met said: “Specialist officers are trained on specific tactics including using vehicles to bring cyclists to a stop. This tactic was used in this case, causing the boy to fall off his bike.
“Firearms officers left the car and he was handcuffed and detained. It quickly became clear that he was not in possession of a firearm. He was de-arrested at the scene. In subsequent inquiries, his family confirmed he had earlier been playing with a toy water gun.”
The child recalls seeing the red dots from the police firearms as the guns were pointed at him.
Once the armed officers had knocked him to the ground, a neighbour brought his mother, who protested to police.
The boy’s family want his identity protected, which they believe will increase his chances of recovery. His mother said: “It has been a deeply traumatic experience for him, for me, and for our family as a whole.
“The attitude of the police to him – and to me – is shown up in the words of the senior officer at the scene when I protested to him about the conduct of his officers: he told me I was lucky that they had not arrested my son.
“For what? For playing with a brightly coloured plastic water gun with his younger sibling on the streets behind our home? For being a black boy on the streets of Hackney?
“I know – and the police know – that they would not have treated my son in the way they did if he had been a white 13-year-old boy.
“I know that they would not have treated me with the contempt shown towards me or described me as ‘aggressive’ if I was not black.
“After what has happened, how can I ever tell [my children] that they can turn to the police for help? I feel broken by it all; distraught because I was not able to protect my child from what happened.”
DCS James Conway, who in charge of policing for Hackney, 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. … I apologised soon afterwards to his family.”
Lee Jasper of the Alliance for Police Accountability said: “This case has huge implications and poses serious questions for the mayor and the London Policing Board, in addition for the Met Commissioner and Hackney, the borough that saw the Child Q scandal [where a black girl was strip-searched in school].
“Adultification of Black children continues to be an increasing aspect of systemic and institutionalised police racism.”
Conway said: “Support has been made available to the boy and his family through our partners. We have also agreed to a review of the safeguarding support offered, led by our independently chaired safeguarding children partnership, in order to learn any lessons from the incident.”
Raju Bhatt, a family solicitor, said the police watchdog had twice failed to investigate this case despite it twice being referred to them.
