MIDVALE, Utah – Law enforcement authorities in Utah have released body-camera footage in which a 4-year-old shot at police officers at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Midvale earlier this year.
Officers with the Unified Police Department were dispatched on Feb. 12 at about 1:30 p.m. to reports that an adult male brandished a handgun at McDonald’s employees after receiving an incorrect order, FOX News reported.
Once McDonald’s employees saw the firearm, they asked the man to wait for his correct order near the front of the restaurant and called police, Law Officer reported in February.
Upon arrival officers began to detain Sadaat Johnson, 27, when a child in the backseat of his vehicle fired a gun at police.
After detaining Johnson, officers asked him to exit the vehicle, but he refused, police said in a press statement.
Footage shows officers using force to get the non-compliant suspect out of the car. They removed him from the driver’s seat and handcuffed him while on the ground.
During the jostling, an officer spotted a gun pointing from a rear window of Johnson’s vehicle. The officer alerted partner officers at the scene and pushed it “to the side as a round was fired,” the press release states. He immediately alerted other officers that it was a “kid” who fired the weapon.
Police said that Johnson instructed his child to shoot at officers, according to FOX.
During the arrest of Johnson, there were two distraught children, ages 3 and 4, in the rear of the vehicle. In the body-camera footage released by the Unified Police Department, officers can be heard telling the children, “It’s okay,” after one of the children fired a single shot.
Court records obtained by FOX 13 Salt Lake City revealed that the child shot at officers because “he wanted his daddy back.”
A 4-year-old child fired at police officers at a McDonald’s in Midvale, Utah, in February. (Google Maps)
Furthermore, the arrest report says the suspect claims he “blacked out” when he allegedly told his 4-year-old son to shoot at police during the dispute, KUTV reported in February.
“Post Miranda, the driver, later identified as Sadaat Johnson stated that he blacked out and that he did not remember brandishing the gun or racking a round at the McDonald’s employee. The driver did admit that this was not the first time that his son had gotten ahold of his gun,” the arrest report said.
Sheriff Rosie Rivera commented on the alarming incident.
“To have an adult think it is okay to encourage a [4]-year-old to pull a firearm and shoot at police illustrates how out of hand the campaign against police has gotten,” Sheriff Rivera said in a February statement. “This needs to stop and we need to come together as a community to find solutions to the challenges we face in our neighborhoods. Officers are here to protect and serve and we are beyond belief that something like [this] could happen.”
According to FOX 13, Johnson was charged with child abuse, aggravated assault and interference with an arresting officer.
