Boy, 11, ‘shoots two teen football teammates over a bag of chips’ | US News
An 11-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder after shooting two football teammates with his mother’s gun.
A dispute over a bag of chips turned violent on Monday night when a youth football player grabbed his mother’s gun and shot two of his teammates at a recreation complex in Apopka, Florida.
‘It’s a shame. No one wants to arrest an 11-year-old by any means,’ said Apopka Police Chief Mike McKinley.
The fight began at the Northwest Recreation Center after Pop Warner Football practice, when two players on the under-13 team allegedly slapped a bag of chips from the hands of a player on the under-11 team.
The entire incident takes place in seconds, and was caught on video by a security camera.
In the video, the child runs to the passenger seat of a car and retrieves and unsecured gun. Seconds later, he points it at another teenager and pulls the trigger.
The single shot injured two teenage teammates – striking one in the torso and another in the arm.
Both victims were hospitalized, and are now in stable condition.
‘It’s a sad day when an 11-year-old can gain access to a firearm,’ said Apopka Chief McKinley.
According to police, the shooter had no criminal history prior to Monday night’s shooting. He was booked at a juvenile facility and charged with second-degree attempted murder.
‘Our hope is that the 11-year-old gets the assistance he needs to make sure this isn’t a resolution for the rest of his life,’ McKinley said. ‘He’s 11, he’s got a long life ahead of him. There’s no doubt that he can turn things around.’
He continued: ‘Hopefully our court system, with diversion programs and counseling and other things, can help him past this and move to a point where reaching for a firearm is not his resolution for the future.’
The police chief called the shooting an ‘isolated incident’ and said there was no threat to the public.
‘The Northwest Recreation Center is a very safe place, there’s thousands of people up there every day and every night.’
McKinley said that law enforcement intended to pursue charges against the child’s mother for leaving the gun unattended in her car.
‘It is a crime to allow your children to have access to a firearm in an unsecured box,’ McKinley said.
He continued: ‘For all the parents out there – if you have a firearm in your car or a firearm in your house, you have a responsibility to make sure that firearm is secure and not accessible to our youth,’ McKinley said. ‘It only takes one bad decision, in a split second, to ruin lives.’
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