Lawndale man wielding toy gun is lucky to be alive, Hermosa police say

A Lawndale man wielding a toy, but very real-looking pistol, was lucky to be alive Friday after three officers surrounded him in Hermosa Beach and ordered him to drop the gun, police said.

Shane Daniel Olswang, 22, came within a split-second of getting shot when officers confronted him in the 1300 block of Hermosa Avenue, Hermosa Beach police Sgt. Robert Higgins said.

"If he started to bring the gun up, you would have had three officers shoot him," Higgins said.
The gun, Higgins said, was a toy Beretta gun that shoots plastic pellets. An orange ring to indicate it was a replica had been painted black.

Hermosa Beach officers responded at 2 a.m. to a report of a man with a gun.

When they arrived in 10 seconds, they saw Olswang standing in a crowd of people.

"The suspect pulled what appeared to be a Beretta handgun from his waistband, racked the slide back, and wielded it at a citizen in a threatening manner," Higgins said.

Officers ordered him to drop the weapon, but he did not immediately comply. After repeated orders to drop it, he finally did and was arrested, Higgins said.

"All it took was him bringing the gun just up a little bit and he would have gotten shot," Higgins said. "It was a very dangerous, very fluid situation."

Olswang was arrested on suspicion of exhibiting a replica firearm and booked at the Hermosa Beach jail. He was released after posting $15,000 bail.

Higgins said Olswang pulled the gun during an argument with another man over a woman he was trying to pick up. She apparently had a relationship to the man.

"The female involved in it was so despondent we couldn't even talk to her," Higgins said. "They were concerned about getting shot by him and the resulting shootout with the police as well."

Police determined the gun was a replica Beretta 92FS pistol, a weapon commonly carried by police and the military.

Olswang is scheduled to appear in Torrance court on Sept. 28.

Police sent this photo of a gun that looks just like the one that Olswang was carrying: