With the possible exception of a squirt gun, pointing just about any type of gun at a police officer will get you shot.
That also goes for 39-year-old Chuckie Stowers, whom police say was shot and killed by Phoenix Police Department officers after pointing a BB gun -- which Stowers allegedly was in the process of stealing from a Walmart store -- at cops.
Phoenix police Sergeant Trent Crump says a Walmart security worker called police on Saturday afternoon, reporting that he'd just watched Stowers on a store camera using a 4- or 5-inch blade to take a BB gun out of its packaging.
The security worker at the store -- around 52nd Avenue and Indian School -- saw Stowers place that BB gun inside a red jacket, which was inside a shopping cart Stowers was pushing around the store.
After police responded to the store, and watched that security footage, officers met Stowers, 39, at one of the store's entrance/exit doors.
Crump says police tried to approach him and yelled commands at him to stop, show his hands, and put his hands on his head. Crump says Stowers "made several furtive movements with his hands toward the front of his waistband" before he pulled out a black pistol, and pointed it at police officers.
Multiple officers fired at Stowers, who later died at St. Joe's Hospital.
Crump tells New Times that the pistol pointed at officers was indeed the pistol-style BB gun Stowers had just stolen.
No police officers were injured throughout the incident.