Indiana police officer, whose job was being broadcast live on cable televisionarrested a man after neighbors reported his young son wandering down an apartment hallway with a loaded gun, authorities said.
The footage was shown on «On Patrol: Live» by Reelz on Saturday night when Beech Grove police responded to a call about a child, wearing only a diaper, allegedly walking around unsupervised and pointing a firearm.
Officers spoke to a neighbor who called police and then to the boy’s father, Shane Osborne, 45, who said there was no weapon in his apartment, «Live» footage showed.
Four responding police officers were about to leave the building when another neighbor approached them and shared footage, taken from their doorbell camera, of an armed child in a diaper, «Live» showed.
Officers immediately returned to Osborne’s apartment and eventually found a 9mm Smith & Wesson inside a locked desk, according to the Reelz show.
Curtis Wilson, a Richland County, South Carolina, deputy sheriff and an analyst for «Live,» said he doubts the boy randomly placed the gun on that desk.
“The way it was placed on this dresser, the way it was strategically placed there and from top to bottom, it’s unlikely that a small child could do that,” he said.
Osborne was booked on suspicion of gross neglect of a clerk, police records showed, though more charges may be pending.
Before the firearm was found, Osborne had told cameras that he cannot possess guns as an ex-convict.
The father’s criminal history includes convictions for fraud and receiving stolen property, state records showed.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Osborne had retained or been assigned an attorney. A call to his cell phone went straight to voicemail.