Cops: Boy, 8, Stole Mom's Gun to Rob Store

Florida has decided not to pursue charges
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 6, 2016 8:29 AM CST
Cops: Boy, 8, Stole Mom's Gun to Rob Store
A clerk can be seen grabbing the boy in this image from surveillance video.   (YouTube)

An 8-year-old boy in Florida used a loaded gun to try to rob a store where he was barely tall enough to see over the counter, police say. A clerk at King Foods and Meat Bazaar in West Palm Beach tells WPTV that the boy walked in on Wednesday night wearing a motorcycle helmet, pointed a gun hidden under a sweater at a cashier, and demanded the store's money. The clerk says he was shocked and didn't know if the gun was real, but he knew he had to take it away from the boy and "just turned his wrist and took it out from his hand. At that point, another coworker of mine grabbed him."

The boy's mother tells WPBF that he told her he was going to play in the park, but she realized something was wrong when she went out to pick up her other son. "When I grabbed my purse, I'm like, it was so light. I'm like, I knew I was missing something," she says. "I said, 'Where's my gun?'" Police say the boy was initially charged with attempted armed robbery with a firearm and aggravated assault, but the state decided to drop the charges on condition that he attend a diversion program—and stay away from the store. (More Florida stories.)

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