Teens with Airsoft Guns Apprehended by Plainfield Police

Photos courtesy of the Plainfield Police Department Facebook page. All the guns in these photos are Airsoft BB guns.

Officers with the Plainfield Police Department encountered the kind of situation that can keep a person up at night when Airsoft guns used by some teens were almost mistaken for real guns.

On Facebook, Plainfield Police Department Chief John Konopek shared a story his officers encountered Friday, July 3.

According to the post, officers received a report of people running around near a residential area carrying rifles and other weapons.

“When they arrived, officers made contact with two of the offenders relatively quickly,” Konopek write. “While they were still trying to determine if the weapons were real or not, a third offender began to approach the officers in a tactical manner, partially hidden by nearby brush, with his weapon pointed in the officer’s direction.”

Another officer saw a third person from a distance and drew his weapon to possibly engage the subject and prevent him from harming the other officers.

“This officer took a calculated risk and gave the offender a verbal warning to drop his weapon,” Konopek wrote. “If he had been wrong, this situation could have proven fatal to the offender or officers.”

The subject dropped his weapon and was taken into custody. No one was injured in the incident.

The Plainfield Police Department highlighted this incident as a reminder to parents that purchase Airsoft guns and allow their children to play with them to make sure they’re clearly marked as non-deadly weapons and to know where their children are playing with these items.

“This is a scenario that could have been unbelievably tragic and would have stayed with all the people involved and many more for the rest of their lives,” Konopek wrote.

In a phone interview Tuesday, July 7, Konopek said the teens were charged with disorderly conduct, brought back to the police station and then released to their parents.

Konopek said that the event was very upsetting to him.

“We came very close to having a very, very tragic incident here in the village,” Konopek said.

Airsoft guns aren’t illegal, so there’s not a lot police can do about them.

“They’re supposed to have an orange or highlighted tip on them,” Konopek said. ”In this instance, the juvenile that the officer approached went down in a bush and the officer couldn’t see the tip of the gun.”

Konopek said up close you might be able to see it, but if you’re 20 or 30 yards away it could be very difficult.