Monday 02nd February, 01:13 PM JST
NAGOYA —
A police officer fired two warning shots early Monday after being beaten by a teenage boy he tried to question on a riverbank in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, police said. The 14-year-old, a second-year junior high school student, was uninjured in the incident as the officer fired the shots into water several meters away from the teenager as the teen was about to grab the pistol, they said.
The teen was arrested for obstruction and inflicting injuries, including a shoulder dislocation, on the 26-year-old officer, they said.
The boy told investigators that he attacked the officer because he did not want to be arrested, they said.
The male officer from the Toyohashi police station was out on patrol when he stopped the teen at around 2:30 a.m. Monday to ask him questions. The teen began punching him and tried to grab his pistol, police said.
The officer then fired the warning shots toward the river, they said. He sustained minor injuries to his face and abdomen.
An official of the police station said the officer’s use of his gun was appropriate as the teen had violently resisted and tried to take the weapon.
According to police, the officer was in a patrol car with another policeman when they found four male students riding double on two minibikes, which is illegal, and started following them.
When one of the teens hopped off the back of his bike and began to flee, the officer got out of the patrol car and chased him before getting into a scuffle with him near the river.
The other police officer, 58, was not at the scene of the shooting as he was going after one of the minibikes, police said.
© 2009 Kyodo News.
