Cop Pulls Gun During Snowball Fight ... Could it Have Been 'Roid Rage'?

OK, here's an item. There's a snowball fight. Broad daylight. Young people. One of them chucks a snowball at a Hummer, which happened to be driven by an off-duty cop. The cop gets out, and decides that pulling his gun is an appropriate response. To a snowball.

The DC police department denied the allegation at first, until Reason put up footage of the incident on Youtube (video to your right).

BBC:

At one point on the video - shown on YouTube - the man identifies himself as a "detective", but refuses to give his full name.

Then he proceeds to admit to pulling his gun.

"Yes I did because I got hit by snowballs," he tells angry residents who demand to know his badge number.

He challenges them to "throw another snowball".

A senior police official in Washington DC has said an off-duty officer who drew a gun at a snowball fight behaved in a "totally inappropriate" way.

Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said video footage left "no doubt" the office drew his gun after his vehicle, a hummer, was pelted with snowballs.

The footage showed an angry crowd gathering, chanting: "You don't bring a gun to a snowball fight".

Ms Lanier said the officer had been placed on desk duty.

[...]

Is a statement, Ms Lanier said she had reviewed all the video footage of the incident taken by the public and it was "very obvious" the officer had drawn his police-issue gun "in response to the snowballs hitting his vehicle".

"I have no doubt about this, nor has the officer denied the accusations," she said.

The confrontation ended only when other policemen were despatched to the scene, and managed to calm everyone down.

She said he had not denied the allegations.