Police say a 12-year-old Michigan boy committed an armed robbery at a Hartford gas station after firing a warning shot and shocking surveillance video reportedly captured the incident.
The incident occurred Wednesday afternoon at a gas station in the 100 block of East Main Street, WZZM reported. Surveillance video, obtained by WOOD-TV, shows the suspect, who police say is the 12-year-old, pulling a handgun from his backpack before pointing it at the clerk, identified as Jessica, and ordering her to “Put the money in the bag.”
After Jessica asks if the suspect is “serious,” he aims the gun at the ceiling before firing off a shot, and the employee subsequently retrieves a small bag holding money from the safe, according to the video.
“Here, get out,” she says, placing the bag in his backpack, the footage showed. The boy made off with thousands of dollars, police said.
“It was a kid! It was just a little boy with a black bag! … He was just a little boy. He was probably like, I don’t know, like maybe 10? Ten or 11?” the clerk said in her 911 call, according to WOOD-TV. “He was so young. I didn’t know what — I thought he was (expletive) with me.”
The Hartford Police Department (HPD) received the call just before 4:00 p.m., according to WZZM, and the boy was apprehended “without incident” down the street soon after officers responded.
Reports indicate he obtained his guardian’s gun that was locked in some sort of safe or cabinet at his residence, but conflict as to how the child accessed the locked gun. WWMT reports that police said the child entered a code to get into a safe, but WOOD-TV, citing police, stated that he forced his way into a locked cabinet.
“The Hartford Middle School student faces six charges, including armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, discharge of a firearm in a building and three counts of felony firearm,” WWMT noted.
Lt Mike Prince with the HPD said that while the child was at school earlier in the day, he allegedly spoke with another student about which Hartford gas station was the most vulnerable security-wise, according to WZZM.
“Every day I’m seeing something new at this job. I’ve been a full-time police officer for 38 years,” Prince said. “What really flabbergasted me is that he showed no emotion.”
“He told us he didn’t do it for the money. He said he would’ve thrown the money into the sewer. He wouldn’t give us an explanation why he did it,” Prince added per WZZM.
He is being held in a juvenile facility in Allegan County and is set to make a juvenile court appearance on Thursday.
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