Dad arrested after telling four-year-old son to shoot live rounds at police at Utah McDonald’s
Cover image credit: CNN / Twitter
In a sparkling example of really bad parenting, a dad from Utah Is in custody after telling his four-year-old son to shoot live rounds from a gun at police outside a local McDonald’s.
According to the Unified Police Department headquartered in Salt Lake City, at around 1:30 p.m. on Monday, February 21, a man had an issue with his lunch order at the McDonald’s drive-thru located at 425 West 7200 South in Midvale, Utah. In response to his incorrect order, the man started waving a firearm at the employees. The McDonald’s employees asked the irate customer to drive to the front of the eatery so they could fix his order.
When the man moved his car to the front of the store, the diligent employees called 911 and Officers from the Unified Police Department responded to the scene.
Officers approached the man’s vehicle, issuing several verbal commands for him to exit the vehicle. The irate customer would not cooperate. Officers opened the vehicle door and pulled the male from the car.
While taking the male into custody, an officer turned back toward the vehicle and saw a gun pointing out from the rear window. The officer vocalized to other officers there was a gun while swiping the gun to the side as a round was fired from the gun. The officer recognized the young age of the individual with the firearm and yelled out “kid” to the other officers.~ UPD
The child who fired the weapon is four years old and was in the back seat of the car with his three-year-old sibling. Information collected during the police investigation indicated that, “the father of the child told the child to shoot at the police.” The father is in custody and being interviewed as of this writing.
In a statement on Monday, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said it was a “sad day for law enforcement and our community.”
“To have an adult think it is okay to encourage a four-year-old to pull a firearm and shoot at police illustrates how out of hand the campaign against police has gotten.” the sheriff said.
“This needs to stop and we need to come together as a community to find solutions to the challenges we face in our neighborhoods,” Rivera continued. “Officers are here to protect and serve and we are beyond belief that something like could happen.” ~ NBC News
One Officer was hit by the child’s bullet and received a minor injury to his arm. There were no other injuries.
The father, who has not been publicly identified, is in custody facing charges of felony child abuse and threatening with the use of a dangerous weapon, UPD Sgt. Melody Cutler told CNN.
Officials say that this is still an active investigation. For more on the story, see the video accompanying this article.
(Source: Unified Police Department)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
