The gun was unmistakable to plainclothes officers from the 52nd Precinct. They just didn’t expect to see it in the waistband of a 13-year-old boy the evening of April 9.

But it happened in the area of East 182nd Street and Jerome Avenue in Fordham Heights at the tip of the Five-Two’s jurisdiction abutting the 46th Precinct. Gun arrests are no stranger to this area, but the age of the kid had some residents pausing: why would a little kid be carrying a gun?

The image of the gun can be seen on 52nd Precinct’s Twitter page. The case is making its way through Bronx Family Court as standard policy for minors. Had he been an adult, the young suspect could have faced any amount of hard time starting at three and half years or even the maximum sentence of 15 years for criminal possession of a weapon.

“I hope this child one day recognizes how fortunate he was to have been stopped by professional law enforcement officers before he made any potentially life altering decisions,” said Deputy Inspector Thomas Alps, commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct.

Why this young child was carrying a gun is still unknown. One expert and even residents say the suspect could have been used as a decoy.

David Caba, project manager for Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, a subsidiary of the Good Shepherd Services nonprofit that attempts to convince gang members to renounce their ways, said this a form of protection method used by older offenders called “babyfacing.”

“A lot of times, a 13-year-old is just holding the gun for someone else in the gang, someone who‘s older so when cops come they give everything to the baby face. That’s basically what they call, give to the baby-face, because cops won’t pay attention to the other ones, they ‘re looking at the older one that they already have a history with,” said Caba.

Even with this early arrest of the young suspect, residents still feel a need for more protection in the neighborhood. “They need to bring more police here,” Chalina Moore, a local resident, said.

Marvin, a neighborhood resident who declined to give his last name, worries over gang influence permeating around the neighborhood youth. “The big ones have the little ones with them, and they do some stupid stuff, and they don’t have no respect,”

Armando Vernon, a friend of Marvin’s and neighboring resident of where the arrest happened, finds his block to be very quiet, but just a few block away it’s a different story.

“Turn the corner in another direction, 183rd [Street] is a different world,” Vernon said.