BEECH GROVE, Ind. — The father of a Beech Grove toddler who was seen waving a handgun in shocking video in early 2023 was sentenced to probation after accepting a plea agreement in the incident on Tuesday.
As part of the plea agreement March 12, Shane Osborne pleaded guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent, with the second count of neglect of a dependent being dismissed, as well as the dismissal of dangerous control of a firearm.
Osborne was sentenced to more than one year of probation – 692 days total. He spent 19 days in jail.
Both parties also agreed the gun and ammunition must be destroyed.
Video of his son playing with the gun went viral in 2023, after the live TV show, "On Patrol: Live on Reelz," captured the moments Beech Grove officers found the gun and arrested the father.
Court records obtained in 2023 by 13News painted a clearer picture of what happened that led Beech Grove police to a 4-year-old in a diaper carrying a handgun and waving it around the hallway inside an apartment complex before police arrested his father.
"Very grateful that, luckily, my neighbors, they'd seen it and called the police immediately and acted quickly," said Tabitha Blackmon, a neighbor.
Blackmon said she was home earlier in the day with her kids when she heard a child playing around outside.
“I didn’t really think anything about it at first, but after about an hour, I was like, 'Maybe I should peek my head out,'" Blackmon said. "So I looked outside and he’d actually pushed my door open. And so I opened the door and he’s standing here."
The toddler was wearing just a pull-up diaper, despite the cold.
“So then, I looked up the steps and I see a door up there wide open, but I didn’t know whose child it was, so I didn’t know whose apartment he had come from. It was probably about an hour-and-a-half to two hours after that, the police actually showed up,” Blackmon said.
"Who's here with you? Is mom or dad here?" Beech Grove police asked the child when they arrive to investigate after getting reports from neighbors about the toddler waving around a gun in the hallway.
Body camera footage from officers and cameras rolling from a docuseries featuring Beech Grove police show Osborne telling police he'd been sick and sleeping all day. He told police he didn't own a gun because of previous felony convictions.
Officers searched for the gun and head out empty-handed, but soon turned back around after a neighbor's security cameras revealed what happened.
"Where did you put down that toy?" officers ask the child.
As officers look through the apartment again, unable to locate the gun, one officer asks the child where he put it. The child takes officers straight over to a desk in the living room where the handgun was laying.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the gun didn't have a round in the chamber but did have 15 rounds in the magazine.
"I had seen him prior to that, but I hadn't seen him with a gun," Blackmon said. "So when I heard he had a firearm, I was like, 'OK, that's a problem.'"
According to the probable cause affidavit, Osborne said the gun belonged to his cousin who sometimes left it there when he felt mentally unstable. Osborne also told police he didn't know the gun was in the apartment or that his son knew where it was.
Osborne was arrested soon after.
Blackmon said it's a heartbreaking situation for everyone involved.
"I'm not here to judge. Parents make mistakes," Blackmon said. "I'm just glad it got handled before anybody got hurt, and I wish that child and that family the best."