Florida teens, police engage in violent shootout
Florida teens, police engage in violent shootout
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Two children in Florida ran away from a group home, broke into a house and engaged in a shootout with law enforcement officers responding to the scene, authorities said on Wednesday.
Gloria Tso reports.
Florida teens, police engage in violent shootout
Florida authorities said two armed children engaged in a violent shootout with law enforcement in the town of Enterprise on Wednesday.
The Volusia County sheriff's office said a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl from a group home found guns after breaking into a house.
There they fired on sheriff's deputies who were responding to the scene.
Body camera footage released Wednesday showed deputies hiding behind trees as shots rang out around them.
The girl was shot and wounded after pointing a shotgun at officers, while the boy put down his AK-47 shortly after and was not injured.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the children were "coming out to kill cops." "This wasn't a shootout in one area of the house.
They were traversing the length of that house and opening fire on deputies from different angles." Video footage of the girl being shot was blurred.
The audio painted a frantic scene as deputies rushed to provide her with medical aid.
Authorities said the girl has underwent surgery and is in stable condition, and that unspecified charges against the children are pending.
No sheriff's deputies were hurt in the shooting.
The sheriff's department said the children had run away from Florida United Methodist Children's home Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the reported break-in.
The home contained a handgun, a shotgun and the AK-47, along with a large amount of ammunition.
Over the course of about half an hour there were four exchanges of gunfire.
The sheriff said the girl had a record and was arrested last year for lighting several vacant lots on fire.
He further blasted Florida's juvenile justice system, calling it broken.
He also noted that violent teenage offenders are often put into group homes which are not trained to handle them.