Child X: Met police probed after armed cops swarmed boy with water pistol | UK News

The police watchdog has announced it will investigate an incident in which a 13-year-old Black child was surrounded by armed police after an officer mistook his water pistol for a real gun.

It comes after the teenager’s mother said she feels ‘betrayed’ by the Metropolitan Police.

The boy suffered soft-tissue injuries after he was rammed off his bike by a police van and handcuffed as he was confronted by marksmen in Hackney, east London, in July.

In a statement read out on her behalf at a press conference on Thursday, the boy’s mother said the incident had been a ‘deeply traumatic experience’ for their entire family, adding that she believed it would not have occurred had her son ‘been a white 13-year-old boy’.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) originally said the Met Police should investigate the complaint themselves but announced on Friday it had ‘reconsidered’ its decision and launched an independent investigation.

IOPC regional director for London Charmaine Arbouin said: ‘This was clearly a distressing incident for this boy, his sister and mother and it is right that the complaint is investigated.’

She added: ‘In the light of the mother’s statement yesterday, and the concerns that have been expressed by the local community in Hackney and more widely, we’ve reconsidered our decision and will now investigate this independently.’

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