A 15-year-old boy playing "cops and robbers" with a toy gun in Palmdale was shot and wounded by a sheriff's deputy who mistook it for the real thing, authorities said Monday.
The boy, whose identity was not immediately released, was hospitalized in stable condition, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Jeff Gordon said.
"He's expected to fully recover," Gordon said.
Deputies answering reports of someone riding a bicycle and brandishing a handgun went to 20th Street shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday and spotted the rider, Gordon said.
They ordered him to drop the weapon but instead he pointed it at deputies, Gordon said. One deputy fired a shot and hit the boy in the upper body, he said.
"It looked like a black, semi-automatic handgun with brown grips," Gordon said. "It didn't have the standard tip on it that you find on toy guns. It wasn't like a water gun that come in light, plastic colors."
Toy guns usually have an orange or red tip that allow them to be distinguished from real guns.
