Six-foot-six Charles Sprague kidnapped and sexually assaulted two women at gunpoint in the 1990’s. When he got out of prison, he did it again.
He cut off his ankle monitor, legally bought a realistic looking BB pistol, and used it to carjack and assault a young mother. Prosecutors showed the BB gun to jurors this week.
“As if his size isn’t intimidating enough, let me buy a gun that looks exactly like a real one. This would certainly scare someone,” Tarrant County prosecutor Paige Simpson said in closing arguments.
This week, a jury sent Sprague back to prison for life.
A 15-year-old Arlington boy nearly lost his life this week because of a BB pistol he pulled out after approaching an officer. Police say the officer had told him to back away because the teen was acting in an unusual way.
The officer knocked the weapon away, but only because he was too close to pull his own gun.
“Is it a real gun, not a real gun? They’re just trying to deal with the threat,” said Arlington police chief Will Johnson.
He met with reporters Friday because he said officers are encountering the realistic looking pistols far too often.
He said BB guns have been used in five recent robberies, because they look so real. On the table beside him, the air gun looked almost identical to a police pistol.
“I can think of no reason it has to look like that,” Chief Johnson said.
Cleveland, Ohio police killed a 12-year-old with a real looking air gun. A few years ago, police in Texas killed a 15-year-old with a BB gun rifle because it appeared to be a real rifle.
Some states now require air guns to be brightly colored. Chief Johnson stops short of that, but does say, “We have to acknowledge it’s a problem.”
He said it’s time for the community to start talking about that problem.
A poll on WFAA's Facebook page shows over 70 percent of people could tell the difference between the real and fake guns in a photo, but several commenters noted that it took them some time to tell them apart.
A teen is lucky to be alive after flashing his BB pistol at an officer. Can you tell which one it is?
Posted by WFAA-TV on Friday, April 8, 2016