A 16-year-old boy who went to visit his grandfather in the hospital wound up getting a visit from police. The officers tracked him down inside Northeast Georgia Medical Center Habersham after a 911 caller reported he had a rifle.
The incident Thursday at the Demorest hospital caused the facility to go on a brief lockdown as law enforcement investigated.
Police respond to 911 call
Demorest Police Chief Robin Krockum says a 911 caller alerted authorities to a “white male in a hoodie who was assembling a rifle in his car” outside the building. The caller indicated the subject was possibly going to enter the hospital and gave the emergency dispatcher a description of the vehicle.
Demorest police officers and hospital security were among the first to respond.
“When law enforcement arrived on the scene, we located a vehicle matching the description given by our dispatch in the front parking lot. There were no occupants inside the vehicle when we arrived,” says Demorest Police Chief Robin Krockum. “We did see a compressed air canister in the vehicle, which would possibly indicate an airsoft-type gun.”
Krockum says law enforcement officers entered the hospital at different entrances and began searching for the suspect. After hospital personnel directed them to the boy, who was with his grandmother, police questioned him.
“The juvenile told law enforcement that he had just purchased the airsoft rifle and was putting it together in the vehicle before coming to see his grandfather. He got out of his vehicle and put the rifle in the trunk before coming inside,” Krockum says.
After talking to the teen, law enforcement officers went back out into the parking lot with him to retrieve the rifle from the trunk of the vehicle. They confirmed it was an airsoft gun that shoots plastic BBs through compressed air.
A cautionary tale
The heavy law enforcement response to the hospital included units from the Clarkesville Police Department and Habersham County Sheriff’s Office.
Krockum says the juvenile “acted surprised” when officers approached him. No crime was committed and the boy does not face any legal repercussions. However, this case points to the frightening reality that today’s ‘fake’ guns are so realistic-looking that they can stir widespread public panic.
Sadly, as has happened in other states, kids with fake guns can elicit a lethal response from uniformed officers thinking they were dealing with armed suspects.
Fortunately, that did not occur in this case, but it is a cautionary tale for youth and adults.
“Even though no crime was committed, people should be aware of how things can be perceived,” says Krockum, “Especially in this day and time when these incidents occur at facilities like our medical center that deal with mental health patients, those suffering from substance abuse, or other people in crisis.”
Although, in this instance, the person in question turned out not to be a threat and the gun was fake, Chief Krockum says the person who reported it did the right thing. He urges people to “contact 911 if they see anything suspicious.”
“You can never be too cautious when it comes to the safety of the public. And we appreciate the public notifying us of what they saw.”
