Deputies were “left with no other choice but to return fire”
Video footage shows the moment a 14-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy in Florida began shooting at police after breaking into a home and finding several firearms.
Deputies shot the girl after she and the boy opened fire on police, according to Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
The pair of children broke into a home after running away from Florida United Methodist Children’s Home and found guns, including an AK47 and a shotgun. Police eventually located the home that the children had broken into, after a passerby told law enforcement that he heard breaking glass at a home in the vicinity around 8pm.
The homeowner told authorities that there were weapons in the house, with deputies then surrounding the home and making attempts to speak to the children. However Sheriff Chitwood said that the girl at one point came outside and threatened to kill one of the officers, Sergeant Donnie Maxwell.
Tonight's shooting involves 2 juveniles who broke into a house and used multiple weapons found inside to open fire on responding deputies.
— Volusia Sheriff (@VolusiaSheriff) June 2, 2021
According to Click Orlando, Chitwood said: “We try to deescalate, we throw a cell phone into the house to try to talk to them. The 14-year-old comes out of the garage with a pump shotgun, levels it at deputies, and despite warnings to drop it, she walks back into the garage. She comes back a second time, and that’s when deputies open fire.”
The bodycam footage shows how the tense scene unfolded.
Officers approach the dark house where the children are, lighting their way with flashlights. Then the girl emerges.
“She’s pointing a gun. She’s pointing a gun behind the trash can,” an officer can be heard saying.
Shortly afterward, an exchange of gunfire can be seen in aerial footage. An officer shouts “Cease fire!”
The boy soon walks out of the house with his hands up, but the girl remains hidden.
“Light her up,” one officer says – and then quickly clarifies what he means. “With a light! With a light!”
The officers then approach the girl, who is lying on the ground, take away her shotgun and start providing medical assistance.
The sheriff said that deputies took several rounds of gunfire before “they were left with no other choice but to return fire.” They reportedly had nowhere to hide other than behind trees.
This is the tree that provided cover for our deputy who came under fire from two children yesterday. The best tree in Volusia County as far as I'm concerned pic.twitter.com/s2nfphNvVV
— Mike Chitwood (@SheriffChitwood) June 2, 2021
Sheriff Chitwood praised his officers for their restraint, and criticised the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, calling the department a “failure” and a “fraud.”
Authorities said that the children also destroyed furniture in the house using baseball bats, and the sheriff said: “Their conversation was they were going to kill my sergeant. They were coming out to kill cops.”
