Two boys, ages 7 and 11, were able to get a .22-caliber handgun and attempted to carjack and rob a woman in Portland, Oregon. The woman fled without injury, and the boys were apprehended.
From an article:
Two Oregon boys, ages 7 and 11, are accused of trying to rob a woman with a loaded gun, police said Sunday.
The boys tried to carjack a 22-year-old woman who was in her family's truck waiting for her parents in a church parking lot, Portland police said in a statement.
Ami Garrett, of southeast Portland, told officers that when the boys approached her, the younger boy told the older boy to “show her your piece.”
The woman said that when she refused to give them her vehicle, they demanded cash and her phone. She said that as she drove away, she saw the 11-year-old boy pull a gun from his pocket.
The boys were apprehended in the parking lot by officers responding to reports of children with guns. Police said they recovered a loaded .22 caliber handgun from the older boy's pockets.
Detectives were investigating how the boys obtained a gun. Because of their age, the boys could not be taken into custody at a juvenile detention center, so they were returned to their families, police said.
The 11-year-old tried to escape his parents’ house but was quickly caught by officers and returned to his parents.
Police planned to give the case to the juvenile court.
According to yet another article, the 11-year old is known to the police for causing trouble by making threats and vandalizing by throwing rocks.
It is unknown how the boys got the gun.
Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.
UPDATE (12/12/12): The 11-year old's father, Joseph Charlton, has now been arrested and will likely be charged in leaving the gun available to his son. Portland has a Child Access Prevention law. Charlton is also a convicted felon and will be charged for illegally owning a gun. The boy and his two younger siblings have been taken into protective services.
From an article:
The gun was a .22-caliber derringer pistol, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau. ....
About 10 a.m., the Police Bureau's Gun Task Force served a search warrant in the 16100 block of Southeast Alder Street in connection with the case. The state Department of Human Services took a 4-year-old girl, the 11-year-old accused in the gun case and a 9-year-old into protective custody.
"The overall conditions in home, circumstances, are not healthy for kids," Simpson said of the decision to take the children into protective custody.
Police also obtained search warrants for two Dodge trucks belonging to the family. Multnomah County animal control officers removed two animals, a cat and a dog, from the property, police said.
The home searched sits next door to the Freedom Foursquare Church, where 22-year-old Amy Garrett said she was accosted Saturday by an 11-year-old with with a gun and a 7-year-old toting bullets in a backpack.
"We have probable cause to arrest the dad for at least leaving the gun unsecured," Simpson said.
Police also charged Charlton, a convicted felon, with felon in possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a minor and endangering a child by allowing access to a firearm under the city's two-year-old ordinance. No other guns were found inside the home during the search, police said.
Charlton is the first person in Portland to be prosecuted under the city ordinance..
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comment. Your comment will be posted after being approved.