“An armed individual dressed in black, hooded and masked”. This is the description given Monday morning by several residents of Saint-Juéry, near Albi, who obviously called the police. Neither one nor two, “staff” are quickly sent to the scene and control the suspect. Quite harmless actually. It is a 16-year-old teenager, “who was walking around with an airsoft type weapon”. He even specifies that he won this replica at the carnival, in the presence of his mother.
More fear than harm then. But the departmental directorate of Tarn security takes advantage of this misunderstanding to educate. “The risk of confusing these ‘airsoft guns’ with real firearms is real and can cause disturbances to public order, or even a real danger for the holder, if these objects are exhibited in the public space, which ‘a minor might be tempted to do, without being fully aware of the danger,’ she explains.
If the police custody of the teenager was quickly lifted, he will still be summoned to court to receive “a probationary criminal warning”.