There was an off-duty corrections officer.
He shot and killed a teenage man that was playing with
a toy water pellet gun out around.
And there's an update to this story because after this did happen,
there was a bit of a stretch and he has since been charged.
We're gonna get those details but first let's talk about what happened cuz his
name is Raymond Chaluisant, excuse me for mispronouncing his name.
He was found unconscious and unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the face from
a weapon fired by Dion Middleton,
who was off duty in the Bronx around 1:35 AM on Thursday.
So, the New York Police Department spokesman told the Washington Post.
After police found him in a friend's car about a half-mile away from the scene of
the shooting, the young man was transferred to St.
Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Middleton, 45 years old, was arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter, and
criminal possession of a weapon.
So why did this happen?
Did you see a kid out in the street and I'm gonna shoot him?
There was more to this.
So, while authorities have not said what they think the motive might have been,
investigators said that they're looking into whether a bead-blaster gun that was
found on Chaluisant contributed to the fatal shooting.
The toy gun shoots water gel pellets.
There was no evidence as of early Friday that he fired or
aimed the toy gun at Middleton before the corrections officer shot and killed him.
At first, he didn't seem to have done anything wrong.
Let me read some of these updates from New York Daily News cuz again,
Dion Middleton is a 45-year-old, off-duty corrections officer that shot.
He acknowledged in a lengthy videotaped statement to detectives that he
should have immediately reported his firing that single shot
early on Thursday that killed him.
But he teaches these things at the department of corrections and
instead afterwards he went to his I think girlfriend's house, took a shower,
got ready for his 7 AM shift, where he actually was going to be on duty.
And he's talked about how he didn't do all these things the correct way.
Let's go to some details.
As I began to, I felt a little bad for this guy cuz he did the wrong thing and
now he's actually one of the few people who owns up to what they've done.
This is what he said.
He said, I didn't see a firearm, I did not hear a firearm.
And obviously, I wasn't shot because I'd be bleeding.
I did not see a firearm at all.
The sequence of these events began at one o'clock in the morning.
As I pointed out, and he said,
I feel a stinging in my back to the point where I'm like, 'OW'.
It was like there was some glass, it's like shards of glass.
He, the teen gives some type of gesture.
I said what the f are you doing?
Because that stuff hurt.
Middleton was walking to his girlfriend's house, he fired one shot was nine
millimeters Glock, smashed one of that SUV that the guy was in, and
he hit him in the jaw, mortally wounding him.
And after that again he went home and then end up going on to work.
So, he's since been charged second-degree murder and he's on up to what he did.
He said, I shouldn't have done it this way.
And it's a matter of me just, I guess overreacting, was his approach here.
Now, this other part of this motive.
This is where the other part about this troubling story comes in.
It could have been part of a TikTok challenge or
could have just been playing out in the streets.
Either way it goes,
it wasn't a specifically real gun that's gonna actually do some serious damage.
Maybe Middleton thought so.
Let's go to the details of a potential challenge that he was involved in.
So, this amped up toy water guns have been popular in recent months.
Thanks to this or bees challenge that's on TikTok.
It encourages users to buy the Orbeez soft gel or water balls,
load them into air soft guns and fire them at people when they least expect it.
Although the toy water gun is believed to be safer than air soft guns that fire
plastic pellets.
Police have cracked down on teams participating in these shootings that
authorities say caused some serious injuries.
Raymond's older sister said that he was just out playing on a hot day though.
So, really fast she said this,
I can't believe a corrections officer killed my brother.
Everything nowadays is a rage thing.
They were just having fun.
It's a new nerf gun that shoots water.
The whole neighborhood was having a water gun fight cuz it was 90° outside.
Sad through all the way around.
>> Yeah.
So look, first of all on the so called challenges,
I tell my kids, A, never do any challenges online.
It's a disastrous idea.
B, never go to the front yard with water guns and
I've told them that from day one because it's Tamir Rice.
Remember cops in Cleveland pulled up and shot and
killed Tamir Rice in two seconds, no warning, no talk, no nothing.
He had a toy gun in his hand in a public park.
He's 12 year old boy and they shot him dead.
And then by the way, of course,
the justice system thought that that was perfectly appropriate.
There was no consequences, okay?
None. They thought the cop acted appropriately
in murdering a child in two seconds flat.
So, John Crawford also in Ohio and a Walmart,
grabs a BB gun from the Walmart that they were selling that he was going to buy,
somebody reports a black man with a gun, cops killed him in two seconds.
So be really, really careful with toy guns, water guns, etcetera.
But the main point isn't that, the kid did not deserve that.
Even if he did a stupid prank where he shot a water gun at a guy.
So, the main point is when you got a gun,
you wanna use it, you do, okay?
And by the way, we've had a lot of people, right in saying that's true,
it's true, okay?
So, was that a slight provocation?
I didn't see a weapon.
I didn't hear a weapon.
Something pinned me.
Let me shoot a bullet that could murder someone.
That's a disaster.
And it goes through almost every gun owners heads.
And if you're a gun owner, you know that too.
There's some that are super careful and I've met them, right?
But a ton of gun owners can't wait to use it.
So they're like, is it raining?
I don't know.
That looks sound water gun, gun, okay?
Let me shoot it.
And so this guy [INAUDIBLE].
He made the mistake of being honest.
So, he's in a lot of trouble if he'd done what every other corrections officer,
cop, whatever had done and go, no man, I was just, hey, I could have been hurt.
I got him at heart, right?
He would be off, he's, I don't know what his race is.
>> Yes.
It's the Middleton is a black guy as well.
>> Okay, that's it.
He's a toast and then they're gonna say, you see, we have an accountability.
>> Yeah, I think here we have someone who is so
hotheaded that you get hit by a bead from an air soft gun from a kid and
you're gonna get your gun and use it against them.
This is not someone who should have a gun, plain and simple.
But also, if you're that hot headed,
you probably also shouldn't be a corrections officer.
That's pretty concerning as well.
But listen, the thing about who has guns in society is really important
because there are some people who get guns because they like having power.
They like being in a position of power and they like protecting that power
with those guns and getting more power and using their guns for that.
We just heard Andy Biggs this week, go on a rant about how people need to
use assault rifles to address migration over the Southern border.
Basically, making the case that many mass shooters have made in their manifestos in
the United States.
And now we're in a weird situation where so
many people in the United States want to get guns in response to those threats.
To living in a society where there are so
many people who have guns that are on the offensive with them.
And sooner or later everyone's going to have guns and
they're not mostly going to be water guns, but I think the most interesting part
of the story is that NYPD response but I'll wait to get to that.
>> Let's get to that really fast because it jobs with what you were saying
Cenk about.
Be careful with these guns you may have doesn't matter what they look like.
As we go to this tweet from the NYPD that was ill timed when it came to this
type of case.
Once you also look at a picture of what this particular gun looks like that
the victim was holding.
So, NYPD news tweeted this out.
He said, bead-blasters shoot water gel water beads propelled by a spring loaded
air pump making them an air rifle.
Air rifles are violation and in NYC and are unlawful to possess.
Violence found in possession of these will be issued a criminal summons and
the weapon will be confiscated.
And as I was pointing out there there's some details about how it's a violation to
have that gun.
So that's apparently,
I assumed the kind of gun that the victim had that he was shooting.
So, it wasn't that he mistook it for a real gun.
It's that that hurt as he pointed out.
And what the f are you doing was the first response.
And then of course, once you're doing that it's time to shoot.
But then again, why is that the first sudden move because that's what we've
been taught since we were born.
>> Yeah.
And so this is of course another deflection.
And I just told you my stance on toy guns,
water guns I think because, but why do I have that stance?
Because cops in America are trigger happy, they can't wait to shoot if they and
they're taught, if you have 1% risk of a hangnail just kill the other guy or
a kid, right?
So, but overall, no the main problem is what the hell are you
doing should not be followed up with I'm going to murder you.
>> Yeah, the NYPD tweeting this out is just so insensitive after this happening.
They're so willing to criminalize behavior at their convenience to,
I don't know, try and cover for the officers, correctional officers at that
who are not even on duty, to make it seem like this was justified in some way.
And it just goes to show that the NYPD, they're not enforcing justice.
They're enforcing the laws at their discretion and in varying severity.
Because right now they're making a big deal about having these guns to try and
quell how many people are upset about this and
posting online about the fact that this happened.
And listen, some of the same people that are going to see that tweet,
people who love the police who are members of the far right.
They're going to be like yeah, how dare they have a water gun?
But those are gonna be the same people that are like we have the right to bear
arms, do you?
You can't even have a water gun in the United States.
And it's so crazy the hypocrisy of the right,
because I guarantee you the same people that are very upset that we're talking
about gun control will see that tweet from the NYPD.
And be like, how dare these people have a water gun?
>> Yeah, TIM Pool once said to me on social media,
yeah of course everybody's got a right to a nuke into an RPG and he wasn't kidding.
So, right wing position is, you can all have nuclear weapons but not water guns.