Insane video: Off-duty cop fires gun after youths attack him for holding arms of boy, 13, in dispute

An off-duty Los Angeles police officer was caught on cellphone video firing his gun after youths attacked him for holding the arms of a 13-year-old boy during a dispute outside the officer's home in nearby Anaheim on Tuesday.

Image source: Facebook video screen cap

The clip shows the officer, wearing sunglasses and a blue plaid shirt, holding the boy's arms as his companions approach the pair, shout "let him go!" and attempt to free the youth.

Image source: Facebook video screen cap

At one point the officer is heard saying the boy shouldn't have threatened to shoot him — but the boy replies that he said "sue."

Soon two other youths intervene, one slamming into the officer's side and knocking him through a row of bushes, and another throwing punches at the cop.

Image source: Facebook video screen cap

Another youth jumps over the hedge and reaches into his back pocket while approaching the officer.

Image source: Facebook video screen cap

That's when the officer is seen pulling his gun from his waistband and firing it while continuing to hold on to the boy. No one was hit, but the gunfire scattered the converging kids.

The boy the officer was holding was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats and battery, and a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery, Anaheim police told KTLA-TV. Both teens were released to their parents.

The officer in question was placed on administrative leave, and both the LAPD and Anaheim police are investigating the incident.

In response to the video hitting social media, hundreds protested Wednesday night in Anaheim, leading to 24 arrests on misdemeanor charges, including failure to disperse, resisting arrest and battery on a peace officer, KTLA-TV reported in a separate story.

Protesters also tried getting into the home of the officer on the video, breaking its windows as well as car windows, the station said, adding that protesters also broke an Anaheim police car's windows, spray-painted a garage door and broke a window at a neighboring house.

Of the incident between the off-duty officer and the boy, Anaheim police stated that it "began over ongoing issues with juveniles walking across the officer's property," KTLA reported.

The boy’s mother visited her son at a detention facility Wednesday and emerged with him after his release, the station said. She said she was told that the Orange County District Attorney's Office had rejected charges, KTLA reported.

“I still fear for our lives, for him living right down the street from us,” she said tearfully, the station reported. “Him being an officer.”

But the district attorney's office wouldn't confirm if charges were rejected, KTLA said.

After his release, the boy told a KTLA reporter that the confrontation started after a girl walked across the officer's lawn and the officer made a disparaging remark to her.

"I said, 'Hey, that's not how you treat a lady,'" the boy told the reporter. "And then he came at me. ... He hit me. I ran to the street to run away from him, and he got me. He tried to trip me and then he kicked me in my testicles."

In the cellphone video, the boy at one point appears to taunt the officer holding him: “He tried to hit me in my nuts. That’s like a little pussy move, punch a kid in the nuts.”

The boy's mother told KTLA the family retained an attorney.