Plainfield Police Post Photos of Airsoft Weapons, Highlight Split-Second Decisions Officers Must Make

The Plainfield Police Department has posted a statement and pictures on its Facebook page regarding a recent police call in Plainfield.

Statement on the Plainfield Police Facebook page:

"Are these weapons and gear real or fake?

After looking at them for a few minutes you may be able to realize that all this gear is related to Airsoft activities but imagine being a police officer and coming upon a group carrying these items and you have to decide in a second or two whether they are real or fake?

Members of our department faced this exact scenario this past Friday when they were dispatched to a call reporting people running around near a residential area carrying rifles and other weapons. When they arrived, officers made contact with two (2) of the offenders relatively quickly. While they were still trying to determine if the weapons were real or not a third offender began to approach the officers in a tactical manner, partially hidden by nearby brush, with his weapon pointed in the officers direction. Another responding officer saw the third offender from a distance and drew his weapon to possibly engage the subject and prevent the subject from harming the other officers. This officer took a calculated risk and gave the offender a verbal warning to drop his weapon. If he had been wrong this situation could have proven fatal to the offender or officers.

Thankfully, the third offender did drop his weapon and was taken into custody without further incident. As it turns out, these were three teens with Airsoft items and thankfully no one was injured.

We highlight this incident to remind parents that do decide to purchase these items or allow their children to play with these items to make sure they are clearly marked as non-deadly weapons and to also make sure parents are aware of where they are participating in these activities.

This is a scenario that could have been unbelievably tragic and would have stayed with all the people involved and many more for the rest of their lives."

To see the photos, go here.