Onondaga County Sheriff details the difficulties of identifying real and replica guns

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Utica police body camera video shows the exact moment 13-year-old Nyah Mway pulls out a handgun and aims it at police.

The officers tackled him to the ground and shot him as he held on to the weapon.
That gun was later revealed to be a pellet gun.

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“Unless you walked in a police officer’s shoes and you realize what goes on in a short time span that it happens, I would say no, there’s no way a police officer could tell,” said Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley

Sheriff Shelley laid out a handgun and a pellet gun on his desk. The two look nearly identical. The sheriff believes manufacturers make these weapons more realistic to make more money.

“If I was a manufacturer trying to sell a gun, you would want it to look real to sell it,” he said.

NewsChannel 9’s Jeremy Skiba held both a Glock 19 handgun and a Glock 19 pellet gun in his hands. They both weigh the same, and, at first glance, they both look the same. It would especially be hard to tell the difference in the dark.

“You can’t tell which one is real or fake,” Sheriff Shelley said. “When you look at the characteristics of them, one is meant to match the other. It’s a clone, and I’m sure it is good for sales.”

Sheriff Shelley says police are trained to defend themselves when a gun is pulled on them, including using deadly force. He says to prevent an incident like this from happening again, parents need to talk to their children.

“I grew up with a BB gun. I grew up with a handgun that looked like a Colt 1911. I sure wasn’t pointing any guns at the police,” he said.

It’s a lesson at home that can go a long way.

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