Font ResizeLAS CRUCES - Two teenagers already on probation were criminally cited after allegedly pretending to shoot at a Las Cruces Police Department officer with their fingers.
The officer was patrolling the Mesilla Valley Mall parking lot Sunday evening when he reported Jesus Carrasco "made direct eye contact with me and [using] a hand gesture, simulated shooting at me and my patrol car." Joseph Lawry, who was standing nearby, then allegedly did the same thing, according to the police report.
After the two got into a white Cadillac with windows too darkly tinted to see inside, the officer drew his gun and ordered the boys to come out with their hands empty.
The boys' foster mother told the officer the two had admitted to "pretending to shoot at the cop" and agreed to criminal charges, saying "what they did was not right."
Both boys ultimately apologized for what they said was "a stupid move" and said "they shouldn't have pretended to shoot at" the officer, the report stated.
When asked why he had done what he did, Lawry allegedly told the officer "it wasn't illegal to look at a police officer." Carrasco, who then quipped that "he couldn't even have a little fun playing around," was authorized to be detained at the juvenile detention center. Lawry was ordered to contact his probation officer on Monday.
