A white police officer who decided not to shoot a black child who was holding a toy BB pistol was praised on CNN on Wednesday for not killing his suspect.
CNN host Brooke Baldwin began the segment by reminding her viewers that 12-year-old Tamir Rice had been shot and killed by officers in 2014.
She contrast that with her guest, Columbus Police officer Peter Casuccio, who said he went into "dad mode" when he saw two black boys -- ages 11 and 13 -- playing with what looked like a real gun. Instead of using deadly force on the children, Casuccio decided to talk to them instead.
"If you have two kids in front of you -- and it almost ended in deadly force -- you have an obligation as a steward of your community and to the men and women you work with to grab them by the ear and sit them down and say, 'Hey, man, this is not the way it works,'" Casuccio recalled.
"This is getting kids of all colors of all different types of neighborhoods killed on almost -- I hate to say -- annual basis," he continued.
"It is, that's the truth," Baldwin replied. "And good on you for doing what you did."
Casuccio insisted that most of his colleagues would have done the same thing.
"We need more Peter Casuccios in the world," Baldwin said, concluding the segment.
Watch the video below from CNN.
