Baltimore police shot an 8th grader with a toy gun on anniversary of civil unrest

One year to the day after Baltimore erupted in unrest following the police-custody death of a 25-year-old black man named Freddie Gray, police in Baltimore shot an eighth-grade teen carrying a toy gun. 

The 13-year-old, shot on Wednesday, is expected to survive.

“The real only way to tell which one of those guns is real or not is to be on the receiving end of that gun as you’re staring down the barrel of it and the trigger is pulled," Baltimore Police Chief Kevin Davis said during a defensive news conference Thursday. "That’s the only time we’re ever going to know whether a gun is real or if it’s a replica.”

Two officers began chasing Dedric Colvin after they saw him carrying what they believed to be a pistol. 

After a brief chase, according to a witness, Colvin turned to the police and shouted "it's not real." Officer Thomas Smith then shot him in the leg and shoulder. 

Police then handcuffed the boy's mother, Volanda Young.

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Young says she was taken to a police station and put in a cell. Two hours later, officers drove her to the hospital to see her son. 

Colvin was awake and talking on Thursday afternoon, according to The Baltimore Sun. He had bandages around his left shoulder and one on his legs, and was flipping channels on the TV in his hospital room.

The shooting bears a lot of resemblance to the fatal 2014 Cleveland police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. 

Rice was also carrying a fake gun. He was fatally shot less than a second after officers exited a police car to confront him. Earlier this month, Cleveland agreed to pay Rice's family $6 million in a settlement that allowed the city to avoid responsibility for the boy's death. 

The police say they are investigating what led to the shooting.

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