Children, 12 And 14, Shoot At Florida Cops With Stolen AK-47, Other Guns

A 14-year-old girl from Florida was shot by officers after getting into a shootout with Volusia County deputies. Authorities said that the girl and 12-year-old boy ran away from a United Methodist Children’s Home and broke into a home by shattering a window.

Deputies contacted the homeowner and learned that he had multiple guns, including an AK-47 and a pump shotgun inside. When deputies tried to enter the house, they came under fire. After about ten minutes, the girl exited the house and threatened to kill the officers. About 15 minutes later, the boy exited the house with the AK-47 and started shooting.

Despite being under fire, officers never returned fire and tried their best to deescalate the situation. Eventually, the girl came back out armed with the shotgun and pointed it at the officers. She refused commands to drop the gun, and the deputies shot her multiple times.

“My deputies showed more restraint than I’m showing right now because I am furious that we could be burying somebody tonight. They took multiple, multiple rounds... And I know for a fact one banana clip was empty from the AK-47. I know from the radio transmissions that a 12-year-old opened fire on us. I know that the 14-year-old opened fire on us with a shotgun and then walked out and threatened one of my sergeants and told him she was going to kill him. And we didn’t return fire. But after she came out of the garage, hey, there was nothing left that we could do. We had to do what we had to do,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said.

The girl was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition. The 12-year-old boy was also taken to the hospital because he is diabetic and needed insulin. No officers were injured.

After the incident, Chitwood blasted Florida lawmakers and the group that runs the foster home. The 14-year-old girl has had multiple run-ins with law enforcement, and the United Methodist Children’s Home has been unable to control the children in its care. He said that officers have responded to 289 complaints at the facility this year.

“The brainiacs in Tallahassee, they want to do this restorative justice stuff. They need to take a deep look and say, ‘Something’s not right here,’ because where the rubber meets the road, these kids are killers. They’re capable of killing. This juvenile citation (expletive) that you hear from these faith groups, they need to worry about what’s going on in the pulpit in their church, not worried about what’s going on in the (expletive) streets when you have 14-year-olds and 12-year-olds arming themselves,” Chitwood said.

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