Two college students from North Dakota State University had a gun pulled on them when Fargo police officers mistook their telescope for a weapon, reported CBS News. Considering the telescope looks nothing a gun, this is another case of trigger-happy cops nearly killing someone.
The officers, who failed to identify themselves, came upon Levi Joraanstad and Colin Waldera as they were setting up the telescope on the night of August, 24. The pair was blinded by a spotlight and told to stop moving. Thinking it was a prank, the students didn’t immediately comply with the orders to stop, and the officers threatened to shoot if they did not obey.
“I was kind of fumbling around with my stuff and my roommate and I were kind of talking, we were kind of wondering, what the heck’s going on?” said Joraanstad. “This is pretty dumb that these guys are doing this. And then they started shouting to quit moving or we could be shot. And so at that moment we kind of look at each other and we’re thinking we better take this seriously.”
Joraanstad was wearing a black sweatshirt with white lettering that the officer stupidly mistook for a tactical vest. He called for backup and it was eventually determined that the “weapon” was actually the students’ telescope. The officers said the pair was never in any danger, which is probably a lie.
Two students were close to being killed because a bored police officer wanted some action on the job. Waldera and Joraanstad are very lucky they weren’t injured, or worse.
