Police responding to an adult overdosing in a car had to negotiate with a 10-year-old boy who was holding a loaded AK-47 that had the safety off, investigators said.
Crowley [Louisiana] police said they were called as Jeremy Leblanc was overdosing in the driver seat of a car in a Dairy Queen parking lot, KLFY reported.
Oberlin’s wife, who was seated in the passenger seat, gave police permission to enter the vehicle and told them that there was cocaine and fentanyl in a cup holder.
Officers found two 9mm handguns near four small children and an AK-47 rifle in a 10-year-old boy’s lap. The gun was loaded and the safety was off, investigators said. After a brief negotiation, officers were able to safely get the weapon from the boy’s hands.
“The child, of course, didn’t want to give it up, to probably either protect his family or didn’t know exactly what was going on. I mean it’s a very scary situation for a child, and officers spoke with him calmly and tried to gain his trust and everything. Of course, it wasn’t a huge struggle, but he was still not letting it go freely,” police chief Jimmy Broussard told KLFY. “It was loaded. It was not on safety, so if … the child [had] panicked and decided to pull that trigger, it would have been much worse of a scene than what we had.”
Leblanc was revived with Narcan. He was taken to a hospital and is in stable condition. He was later arrested on various charges, police said.
Child services were called to take custody of the children.
Jeremy Leblanc, of Oberlin, was arrested on two counts of drug possession, three counts of possession of a firearm in the presence of drugs; and four counts of drug use in the presence of a juvenile.
Crowley Police Chief Jimmy Broussard told Lafayette station KATC that a 10-year-old boy was holding the AK47 rifle with the safety off. The boy initially didn’t want to give the gun to officers, not wanting to give up something he believed was his.
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I mean, really: Overdose, AK47, Dairy Queen, drugs in a cupholder, two handguns, Narcan, not one two or three but FOUR kids, one of them refusing to give the loaded AK47 to the police? Right. Pour it on.