Police: Video of officer pointing gun at "snowball fight" misleading

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- A YouTube video showing a suburban New York police officer allegedly pointing a gun at several young men who were having a snowball fight has made its rounds on social media -- but officials say that the video does not show the entire situation.

The two officers from the New Rochelle Police Department shown in the video had been responding to a 911 call by a woman last week, a local paper reported. A law enforcement official says that she had reported seeing a young man pulling a handgun and pointing at another young man.

According to The Journal News, two officers arrived at the Hartley Houses apartment complex and saw a young man crouched with his hand to his waist, Deputy Commissioner Tony Murphy told reporters. The suspect then ran off and escaped.

"This guy makes a move and the officers draw their guns," Murphy told the newspaper. "This happened within seconds."

One of the officers ran after the suspect, while the other frisked the remaining men, who obeyed the command to get on the ground, Murphy added.

The short video shows the officer pointing the gun and frisking the young men, while a women's voice appears to say, "This group of guys was having a snowball fight and now the cop has a gun on them."

There hadn't been any snowball fight, Murphy explained to the paper. The video had been posted, he said, "to make mischief," in light of rising tensions between police officers and the communities they serve.

Officials have said that they will not release a recording of the call, but may release a transcript of the call, according to the New York Daily News.

"I'm sure that if I release it [the recording], there are people in the neighborhood who will identify the [caller]," Murphy told the Daily News. "We depend on the public to give us information. If you violate that [trust], then what do you tell people? We know what happened, I know what happened and that's it."