- LORAIN -- A 9-year-old boy
was arrested at gunpoint and handcuffed Saturday because he was waving
a toy gun over his head while seated on a bench outside a store, according
to a Lorain police report.
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- His mother, Tamyka Saunders of Sheffield Lake, said her
son, Thomas Clark Jr., told Lorain police when they approached him outside
a Broadway business that the gun was a toy. An officer aimed his weapon
at the boy's head, ordered him to the ground, handcuffed him and arrested
him for juvenile delinquency by reason of inducing panic, according to
the police report.
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- Saunders, 28, was also charged with obstruction of justice
and resisting arrest when she pleaded with police not to arrest her son
and to give him a warning, according to a police report.
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- ''He doesn't deserve this. He is not a bad kid at all.
That's what I was trying to explain to the officer. It's just not fair,''
Saunders said.
- Saunders was getting her hair done at the Northern Institute
of Cosmetology on Broadway near Seventh Street when the incident began.
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- Saunders said she and her son were spending the day together
. Saunders said her son got his hair cut first, and then he went outside
to play while waiting on her.
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- A passer-by who saw the boy playing just before noon
with a gun -- described by police as a black plastic toy gun -- called
police, who responded to the scene and found the boy ''waving what appeared
to be a black handgun above his head,'' according to a police report. The
report said the gun was spray painted black and resembled a genuine gun.
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- At that point, Officer Joe Novosielski confronted the
boy at gunpoint, ordering him to drop the gun and then lie on the ground,
the report said.
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- Thomas, who his mother said has been diagnosed with attention
deficit disorder, said he was frightened by the incident.
- Lorain police said Novosielski handled the situation
properly.
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- ''Obviously, someone got scared and called the police.
Nobody driving down the street could tell it was a toy gun, so that's where
the panic comes in. We charge that to anyone doing that,'' Lt. Robert Poli
said.
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- ''We're not going to tolerate anyone walking down the
street, sitting on a bench ... if he's waving a gun around,'' Poli said.
''You don't know it's a toy gun.''
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- Saunders said police were not even going to come inside
the cosmetology institute to tell her they were arresting her son. She
said she learned from another woman her son was being arrested.
- Saunders, wearing curlers in her hair, said she raced
out to the police car to attempt to intervene on her son's behalf.
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- ''He (Novosielski) snatched me by the arm and cuffed
me. People were just walking down the street shaking their heads. I did
not cuss at him, and I did not yell at him, because I'm not that type of
person. I feel I'm the one that was disrespected,'' Saunders said of her
arrest.
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- When informed her son was being arrested, Saunders attempted
to pull her son away from the officer but moved away when told to, according
to the report.
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- Police said Saunders pleaded with them not to arrest
her son and to ''just give him a warning,'' according to the report. She
also told police her son ''was just playing'' and that he didn't point
the gun at anyone before asking police, ''Don't you have anything better
to do?''
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- Saunders was eventually arrested after refusing to move
away from the cruiser where her son had been placed, the report said. The
officer told her to finish her business at the beauty salon and then come
to the station to pick up her son, according to the report.
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- She is free on $750 bond and is scheduled to appear in
Lorain Municipal Court today. The report of Thomas' arrest was forwarded
to the juvenile court system, according to the police report.
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- Lorain County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Mark Hastings
said the report had not been received yet.
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- ©The Morning Journal 2003
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