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Gun alert boy’s guardian says military look will stay
The guardian of an 11-year-old autistic boy who sparked an armed police alert says he will not ban the youngsters’s military gear.
The Middy reported last week that three armed officers confronted Connor Fry at Sheddingdean shopping centre in Burgess Hill.
They had followed up a call from a bystander who earlier reported Connor in his military outfit and carrying a plastic ball-bearing gun in St Johns Park.
In a statement police commented on the problem that can be created by guns, real or imitation, being carried in public.
And the man who made the telephone call insisted that he had not over-reacted and Connor should not have been carrying the gun.
The man, who asked for his name to be withheld, told the Mid Sussex Times at the time he and two other men saw Connor he was not near guardian Dave Fry. He said: “He was sneaking through the bushes, pointing his gun, being a soldier. You don’t do that in a public place, heaven knows.
“It is very sad if he is autistic, but it doesn’t alter the fact you don’t go out in military gear carrying a gun. Some teenage boys came over to us and asked us what was going on. The thing is he is a big lad and he looked like a teenager.
“The police asked me to stay on the line and describe what was going on, so I did.”
But Mr Fry, from Haywards Heath, said the dressing up and gun played an important, if unusual, part in Connor coping with autism and other problems.
Mr Fry said Connor had struggled at other schools because his autism had not been diagnosed until three years ago, but he was now doing well at a special school in East Sussex.
Mr Fry said: “For some reason the military interest helps Connor. A paediatrician said to me you can’t take that interest away from him. He loves anything to do with the military and has lots of outfits and has been in public many times and this is the first time we have had any problem of this kind. I won’t stop him wearing the outfits - it’s very important to him and has not caused any trouble until now.”
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Weather for Haywards Heath
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
