Snowball fight: Off-duty cop points gun

Dec

2009

Written by Robby Douglas

Los Angeles - A fun-filled massive snowball fight suddenly became potentially dangerous after an undercover D.C. police officer became involved in a verbal altercation with a group of snowball fighters and allegedly pulled out his gun.

During Washington's record-breaking snowstorm on Saturday, about 200 people from a D.C. neighborhood gathered at the corner of 14th and U streets to participate in a massive snowball fight organized by Twitter users, CNN affiliate WJLA reported.

Snowfight turned furious
The adult men and women were laughing and hurling fresh-fallen snow at one another in the middle of the street, but a good-natured romp in the snow soon turned scary when a cop in plain dress appeared in the scene.

According to multiple media reports, the cop was attempting to drive his big red Hummer down the snow-covered street when snowballers pummeled the vehicle with snowballs. The officer, reportedly a D.C. detective, then got out of the car, approached the crowd and pulled his gun out, presumably to scare off the crowd.

"It was pretty fun," one unidentified participant told WJLA. "And then, you know, when the gun came out, uh, it just changed the tone of the thing a little bit."

"This police officer threatened a bunch of people on the street in broad daylight with a firearm because his Hummer was hit by snowballs," a witness Sarah Massey wrote in a blog post. "This is not the kind of person I want serving me and my community. He threatened and scared people and acted in a dangerous manner."

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