By Anne Berleant
MIDVALE, Utah — New bodycam video released Wednesday reveals the moment a four-year-old child shot at officers during a February arrest of the child’s father in a McDonald’s parking lot.
“Our freaking heads were right there. Had it been any lower, it would have hit. At least we would have gone out together,” one officer can be heard saying in the video.
McDonald’s had called police after Sadaat Johnson, 27, brandished a gun at employees working the drive-thru window during a dispute over his food order, according to KUTV. Employees asked him to pull to the front of the store while they fixed his order, but instead called 911.
The video shows the responding officers order Johnson out of his car. However, they eventually have to pull him from the car. As the officers place him under arrest, an officer yells, “Gun, gun, gun,” and a shot is fired, the video shows. Immediately after, an officer yells, “Kid, kid, kid!” No one was injured from the gunshot.
Officers then help the children out of the backseat of Johnson’s car and into McDonald’s.
“The male child on his own free will began talking to me,” an officer wrote in his report. “The male child told me, ‘I grabbed my dad’s gun and tried to shoot the police so he could be free and do what he wanted.’”
Police found a handgun inside the car, according to KUTV. Johnson later told investigators it was not the first time his 4-year-old son had taken his gun.