"They [Waymo] reported that the passengers were raising and lowering the suspected firearm, and they saw there was a recoil," Luna said.
Company representatives provided a detailed physical description of the object to dispatchers during the active incident.
"They saw what they described as a firearm in the vehicle, described it black in color, and at some point believed that the passengers were firing," Luna said.
Upon receiving the coordinates, police officers established a safe perimeter around the vehicle at the designated shopping center location.
"We conducted a high risk traffic stop.
Waymo did disable the vehicle for us in a location that we were able to set up safely.
And at that point, we pulled them out of the vehicle, searched the vehicle, and then we found what we determined to be Orbeez," Luna said.
The search of the autonomous vehicle revealed the specific types of items the teenagers had brought into the passenger cabin.
"They found an Orbeez water gun, backpacks and an open container of alcohol," Luna said.
The law enforcement agency emphasized that modified toy weapons present a serious safety challenge for responding officers who must make split-second assessments.
"It's harmless until you feel threatened by it.
What we find is happening is people are taking baby guns, toy guns, water guns, and they're painting them black to resemble real firearms.
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And that's the problem, because to an untrained eye, you're going to believe it's a real gun," Luna said.
