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Subscribe to RSSAn Arizona man was arrested after posting a video showing a 16-year old boy walking the streets of Phoenix with a fake rocket-propelled grenade launcher. The man said the incident was staged to test police response time following the deadly theater shooting in Colorado. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
PHOENIX -- Police have arrested an Arizona man who allegedly filmed his 16-year-old nephew walking city streets dressed in a sheet and carrying a fake grenade launcher, authorities said on Wednesday.
Michael David Turley, 39, was arrested Monday over the making of the video, in which an unidentified narrator says he aims to discover how quickly police in Phoenix would respond following the fatal shooting of 12 people at the screening of the “Dark Knight Rises” Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado, in July.
The bizarre, amateurish video depicts a person with a fairly realistic but fake grenade launcher walking around a Phoenix intersection in what appears to be a blue sheet with dark material covering his head and face.
Made eight days after the shooting at a screening of a Batman movie, the film was posted on YouTube and titled, "Dark Knight Shooting Response, Rocket Launcher Police Test."
"Given this event, I wanted to run a little test here in Phoenix, Arizona," the narrator says in the film. "I want to find out how safe I really am, and I want to know the response time of the Phoenix police department."
The filmmaker claims it took 15 minutes for police to respond.
The first officer finds the filmmaker and the teen standing in a driveway. The officer calmly tells the boy to put down the weapon and the man to put down the camera. He didn't draw his gun.
Officer James Holmes, a police spokesman, said Turley told the officer they were just filming a movie, and the officer took down their names and left.
Three Aurora theater shooting victims suing Cinemark; theater to reopen in 2013
After interviewing people who called 911 and later seeing the video posted on YouTube, police arrested Turley.
"It surprised us that he actually put that video on YouTube," Holmes said.
Not 'fun and games'
Holmes said the police response took just over three minutes from the first call, and a helicopter and SWAT team was dispatched as backup.
The Anonymous Filmmaker explores how the Phoenix Police Department reacts days after the event at the Century 16 Movie Theater in Aurora, Colorado where a gunman, James Holmes, killed 12 people and injured 58 more at the premiere of Batman The Dark Knight Rises. In our Hollywood style video, a man resembling a terrorist paces around a busy street in Phoenix Arizona carrying a rocket launcher until the police apprehend him. This film explores the response time and reaction of law enforcement within the Phoenix rural community. You will be shocked to see what happens.
Turley was charged with knowingly giving a false impression of a terrorist act, endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and misconduct involving a simulated explosive.
He is being held in county jail on a $5,000 bond. If convicted, he faces up to 45 months in prison, said Maricopa County Attorney's Office spokesman Jerry Cobb.
"We take something like this seriously," Phoenix police spokesman Officer James Holmes said. "It wasn't fun and games to all the people who were affected by this. We don't behave like this in this country to prove a point."
Read more U.S. stories from NBC News
The 16-year-old has not been arrested, Holmes said.
"The video told us what Turley was intentionally trying to do -- creating a terrorist hoax for his own personal ideals," he said.
Turley doesn't have a listed phone number. He didn't immediately respond to messages sent Wednesday through the YouTube account.
An attorney for Turley could not be immediately reached for comment.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Two members of what is no deemed to be 'one dumb family.' Both of these @!$%#s should be locked up without bail. Walking around the way the teen did would have warranted a hole in him before anyone called 911. The dumbass kid is lucky to still be alive.
BroEli
When did they make abject stupidity illegal?
And if it IS illegal, why are not every member of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House in jail as we "speak"?
i love the comments like "i would have shot him myself"
lol, welcome to america - where people love to shoot first and ask later
AZ Title 13, which covers CCWs states that if someone is using deadly force against you, someone else, or property (as in setting an occupied building on fire), deadly force may be used to neutralize that threat. A person walking around with an RPG-7 falls within that category I would think.
You don't yell "FIRE" in a crowded building or swim in the ocean with a shark fin strapped to your back and expect no retaliation.
Some people just don't realize that anything can be construed as criminal under the tangled mountain of federal, state and local laws. Ever since judges deferred interpreting statutes to the cop on the street, who usually has only a basic legal background, an arrest can be based on the thinnest of assumptions. Never mind the expense and humiliation, arrest them all and let the courts sort them out.
Although I agree with you to an extent that this is an issue I dont believeit applies here. He was intentionally trying to make police come out on a call for soemthing fake-0like they have nothing better to do and he is endangering the life of his nephew-its a miracle the kid dint get shot. Would it take his nephwe being killed because of their stupidity for you to realize this was wrong?
After further review...
Obama reminds us that this was not a simulated terrorist, but simply a simulated protester. Much like the ones that killed our Ambassador and 3 other Americans in Lybia.
Next.
...and who got bin Laden?
Seal Team 6?
...under Obamma's watch.
Hey - if Republicans can take the credit for blaming Obama entirely for the recession (which the repubs had a very, very, very strong hand in causing), then Obama can take the entire credit for getting Osama.
And it's funny. If Bush had sent Seal Team Six, these clowns would be constatly crowing about how BUSH Got him....
So he is like the big overpaid CEO that we all hate? Typical 1%er watching over the people doing the real work then taking the credit?
I mean I'm voting for O&Joe cause like everyone else I despise the 1% but I just am not sure I give Obama any more credit for getting bin Laden than I give Clinton for 9/11. I mean they both just sort of sat back and watched it happen...
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O & Joe 2012 - Tax on the 1%!!! They need to pay their fair share!
Vote out the liars-At first I was thinking we agreed until you went on your spout against 1%ers which is rather ironic considering you start by saying you hate 1%ers and Obama is one. But if you want to go there I implore you to educate yourself on tax law and you would realize you 99%ers (who don't actually come clsoe to representing 99% of this country) and all of the propaganda is bull-they dont want fair they want others to pay more so they can pay less. Fair is a 10% flat tax rate-everyone pays the same. That is fair. I amnot rich by any means butI busted my butt putting myself through school so that I coul have a very good career and I'll be damned if I am going to give extra to support a bunch of idiots that dont even know what they are really fighting for.
Also really Clinton sat back and watched and did nothign on 9-11? You know he wasnt president then right?
A flat tax is FAR from fair. Let's look at an example shall we?
Assume a flat 10% tax. The poor single mother making 30k is taxed 3k. The rich 1%er makes 50M and is taxed 5M.
What do you think is more important when it comes to putting food on the table and clothes on kids backs? 3,000 dollars to the poor family or 5M to the ultra rich family that doesn't even really have to worry about money at all?
The answer is clear and everyone agrees. The tax system must be progressive and the top need to pay a lot more than they're paying now.
On the 9/11 thing... who do you think was in office when MOST of the planning for that tragedy was going on?
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O & Joe 2012 - Raise Tax on the 1%!!! They need to pay their fair share!
Interesting the charges filed for this act. I've not heard of any state enacting any laws such as this. Seems they are grasping at straws to charge them with something as they perceive this as something to make them look foolish. To me they really look foolish now. No laws broken here from what I can see. Move on to the next stupidity.
Unless you have been to law school recently I highly doubt you are eduated enough to say the ops are making up laws. I don't know about the terrosit stuff but the delinquency of a minor and endangerment are very real charges/laws that exist in probably every state
Jim Danielson: Go to page one and look at post 9.9, I listed Arizona laws that apply to this incident.
I live in Phoenix and carry a concealed weapon. If I saw him carrying an RPG-7, and he pointed it at anyone, I would regrettably have had to neutralize him.
"neutralize him"? Really? Who talks like that.
Probably a bible thumping 1%er that thinks that the general population has the right to own guns.
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O & Joe 2012 - Raise Tax on the 1%!!! They need to pay their fair share!
Vern: most people do not say, "bust a cap in his azz" like you do.
Vote: wrong on all counts.
Typical 1%er looking for publicity. Should have been shot.
O&Joe 2012
Yeah, 1% of a normal person's brain and intellect!
What a freaking idiot.
Guy with way too much time on his hands. Be ironic if he ends up spending some of it in prison
This stunt was over-the-top stupid. No question. But, Arizona does have some very lax gun laws. It reminded me of the time people here in Arizona were toting assult weapons to political rallies "because they could." And some people saw nothing wrong with it.
What kind of "assult" weapons are you claiming these people were "toting"?
Or are your panties simply in a twist because someone chose to exercise their Second Amendment Rights by legally carrying their concealed handgun?
Vern-1642229: Jo West is wrong and you are a little.
Arizona is an "open carry" state, which means that anyone can legally carry any (legal) weapon in the open, without any permits, as long as the weapon is:
This means that it is perfectly legal to carry a loaded handgun or revolver on a belt holster, out in the open, while you walk down the street, and no special permits are required. You CANNOT, however, unholster that weapon without a very good reason, nor can you walk around holding a gun in your hand or tucked into your pants. You must have a bona fide holster or case to keep it in, and both the gun AND holster must be openly visible.
However, the cases do not have to be locked, unlike most states, nor even capable of locking.
Jo West: Rifles or what you call assault weapons need to be in a case and can only be carried out of your home in a case to your vehicle. From your vehicle to an area that allows you to pull the weapons out of the case (Hunting, gun-store or firing range). You cant strap the rifle to your shoulder and walk down the street with it.
Hey Vern. I remember one rally in downtown Phoenix where people were openly carrying their semi-auto assault rifles (AR-15s AK-47s). I don't remember what the rally was for though.
BigBaldGuy: Sorry I left out When they did the rally in downtown Phoenix they did not have loaded weapons.... That's how they were allowed to carry the rifles in the open at the rally, plus I'm sure they also had a permit to have said weapons in that area too for that rally too.
I yield to your knowledge of the unloaded weapons. I just remembered the visual on the news.
If I was was that childs mom that man would need to be in police protective custody-how could he willingly endanger his nephew like that? What a jack monkey. That kid is lucky he didnt get shot by either cops or a civilian.
Seems like a really bad idea, the kid could have gotten hurt or even killed.
Ya think?
I don't believe I have seen anything that matches the stupidity of this stunt. The kid and the adult that did this should be sent to GITMO as terrorists because that is exactly how they portrayed this.
Had I seen this, the response would have been very simple and to the point: I would have stopped my car, drawn my ever present weapon, taken a position behind my vehicle and declared on the individual to drop the weapon or I will shot your ass. Period. Had he not dropped it as orderd, I would have shot his 16 year old ass until the Police arrived. Perception of imminent jeopardy is present in this case. It would be sad that a kid died for being stupid but I don't believe a jury in the world would convict someone for shooting a person toting an RPG on the streets of Anytown, USA.
well i think we owe this guy a thank you cuz now we know the police WONT protect us. 15 minutes is way too long. in that time 300 plus could have been killed (just a guess) but that was a rather serious mock weapon the real one is devastating! all i can say is IM NEVER MOVONG TO ARIZONA! and as for the terristic charges....well ya they gonna try to throw our friend under the bus for prooving they are idiots! better get behind your citizen cuz your police force aint happy with him!
Just another two idiots trying to get their 15 minutes of fame on you-tube hoping will be picked up nationally and the bucks will roll in. Pathetic period.
I would have shot his ass dead. Instantly.
I am right there with you Vern.....
Why are we even discussing this?
The guy cheated death, through a fluke of statistical probability, in that no legally armed citizen saw this happening.
By all rights, the headline of this story should have been "TEEN SHOT DEAD FOR BRANDISHING SIMULATED RPG".
Ok sooooo You are making a statement on how lax the response time is by taking other citizens' response time away from them .....
If Obama had a son............................. Nevermind
I live in Arizona. COnsidering how many citizens here walk around armed, it's lucky for the guy that someone didn't spot his "actor" and blow his head off.
He's lucky he didn't get his Azz shot and killed, freakin dumb azz
Some people just have WAY no much time on their hands.
Idiots. Both the "filmmaker" and actor should have their butts in jail.
They should have charged the "kid," too. They do @!$%# like this because they know that they'll get away with it. Make an example of him... and the next one and the next one and the next one, until they grow the @!$%# up.
"We don't behave like this in this country to prove a point." Then why are we still losing our young soldiers' lives in the Middle East?
For all of you posting that there was no law broken here:
I recommend that you pull a fire alarm and be seen/videoed while doing it. You will learn a valuable (and costly) lesson.
BTW: Any time you cause emergency repsonders to scramble, you put lives at risk. To do so for a "utube moment" is beyond stupid.