A father spent most of the weekend in jail after his young boy was seen on security video waving a loaded handgun around an Indiana apartment complex, authorities said Monday.
Shane E. Osborne, 45, was arrested Saturday evening after the boy waved what police said is a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun that was one round short of fully loaded, police in Beech Grove said.
Osborne was booked into a local jail on suspicion of neglect of a dependent, according to a police report and inmate information. The charge is a felony. No bail was listed.
It's not clear what police believe his role was in the incident, as they had yet to offer a full narrative. No defense counsel was listed in Osborne's inmate records, and the state public defender's office said it would decline to comment until the court officially assigns an attorney to represent him.
Officers obtained Ring Video Doorbell security video, which shows the boy, a toddler or preschool-age child in a training diaper, playfully moving around a second-level landing of an apartment complex with the weapon.
At first, the boy moves rapidly to a staircase and points the gun down its slope for a beat, the video shows. Then he moves back toward upper-level units and points the weapon at apartment doors before he gives it a partial twirl on a finger so that the barrel points up, it shows.
The boy walks back to a unit, puts the gun in his left hand and opens the door with his right before he goes in.
Officers responding to the report of the boy with a gun were being recorded for immediate broadcast on "On Patrol: Live" on cable network Reelz.
The network provided video of the response, including a downstairs neighbor's narrative that suggested the boy was interacting with her son when he went to the edge of the stairs and looked down.
"My son opened the door, and the little boy upstairs is standing there with a firearm," the woman, who wasn't identified, said as she stood in her open doorway. "I was like, 'Shut the door — he’s got a gun.'"
The neighbor said she looked through her front door peephole and saw the boy standing above with the gun held behind his back.
An arriving officer, identified by "On Patrol: Live" as Sgt. Zach Horgan, asked the woman whether the gun had an orange tip, like a toy.
"No, no," she said, asserting it was real. "It’s chrome, black, looked like a large .45. I sell guns."
Another unidentified neighbor said as much, telling police, according to the show, "That is not a toy."
The boy's name wasn't revealed because he's a minor.
The department's incident report lists the boy's residence and the father's as the same unit. A woman with the same last name as the suspect lives in a separate apartment, according to the report. Her age, 63, could be consistent with that of a grandparent.
Multiple neighbors were interviewed as part of the investigation, according to the report.
Police described the gun as a model SD9 VE 9 mm handgun that had a loaded, 15-round magazine but no round in its chamber. The weapon, introduced last decade, includes a frame made of polymer, the same class of material used in illicit ghost guns.
However, the Smith & Wesson firearm also includes a stainless steel slide and barrel. Its weight of 22.7 ounces is fairly standard.
Osborne was due in court Thursday, the state public defender's office said.
