PALMDALE, Calif. – A 15-year-old boy playing "cops and robbers" with a toy gun was shot and wounded by a sheriff's deputy who mistook it for the real thing, authorities said Monday.
The boy, whose identity was not immediately released, was hospitalized in stable condition, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Jeff Gordon said.
"He's expected to fully recover," Gordon said.
Deputies answering reports of someone riding a bicycle and brandishing a handgun went to 20th Street shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday and spotted the rider, Gordon said.
They ordered him to drop the weapon but instead he pointed it at deputies, Gordon said.
One deputy fired a shot and hit the boy in the upper body, he said.
Gordon said the teen apparently had been playing "cops and robbers" using a replica gun that resembled a black semiautomatic pistol with brown grips.
Gordon said the gun lacked the orange tip that most toys carry to distinguish them from real weapons.
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