Metro Phoenix Prosecutors have decided not to file criminal charges in the fatal police shooting of a 14-year-old boy who was holding a replica gun and fleeing the officer during a vehicle burglary call.
According to ABC News, Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel said prosecutors believed they wouldn’t have likely won a conviction against Officer Joseph Jaen for the January 2019 shooting of Antonio Arce in an alleyway in Tempe.
Police officials said Jaen fired because he thought the gun Arce was holding was real and perceived a threat. Adel said Jaen didn’t know when he fired his gun that the suspect was 14 and about to run out of the officer’s view while appearing to be armed.
“In those few split seconds, Officer Jaen believed that someone was fleeing the scene of a crime, that they were in possession of a handgun and holding it in a manner where the weapon could be easily discharged,” Adel said.
The officer’s body cam footage showed him drawing his handgun and taking cover behind a large trash bin as Arce can be seen moving around a pickup truck parked in the alley. The officer told the 14 year old to show his hands as the teen runs away. Jaen then stopped and fired two shots at Arce, who didn’t appear to turn around or point a weapon at the officer.
Jaen eventually located Arce on a sidewalk just outside the alley, while waiting for back up, he erroneously described the teen as being “in his 40s.”
Moments later, the officer seemed shocked and in disbelief when he learned that the “man” he shot was just a teenager. “It’s just a (expletive) kid,” Jaen said. “It’s an (expletive) toy gun, man.”
Jaen, who worked for 17 years as an officer, 14 of those years in Tempe, resigned as an officer about four months after the shooting, and was granted an early disability retirement. In all, he worked for 17 years as an officer.
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