A teenage boy was arrested for pulling a realistic-looking gun and pointing it at an employee of the Dollar Tree store in Oak Harbor, according to court records.
The employee disarmed the boy and discovered that the pistol was a pellet gun, according to a police report.
The 17-year-old boy appeared in Island County Superior Court Sept. 7. The judge found probable cause existed to believe the boy committed the crimes of assault in the fourth degree, harassment and displaying a firearm to intimidate.
According to the police report, an employee of the store on Midway Boulevard went outside to retrieve carts when he encountered two juveniles. One of the boys told the man “do your job” and called him a profane term.
The employee asked the boy why he had to act like that. The teenager responded by pulling the pistol from under his shirt and asking the employee if they are going to have a problem, the police report states.
After the teenager raised the gun toward him, the employee rushed him, threw him to the ground and took the gun away, according to police. The man told police that he believed the kid was going to shoot him. A witness also said that he thought the weapon looked like a real gun.
Officers were able to identify the teenager from video recovered from nearby businesses. The police went to the boy’s home and arrested him. The boy’s mother said she has warned him about carrying the fake gun, the officer wrote.