APOPKA, Fla. – Newly released surveillance video shows the scene of a shooting on Monday night where an 11-year-old boy is accused of injuring two other children following a local Pop Warner football practice, according to the Apopka Police Department.
Apopka police released the footage Tuesday after the boy was arrested on a charge of attempted second-degree murder.
The footage shows the boy running to his mother’s car in the parking lot near the Northwest Recreation Center, where he was chased by a 13-year-old boy, police said.
After retrieving a firearm from the vehicle, the boy can then be seen running back out and firing one round from the gun. The 13-year-old who was chasing him and another boy were struck by the bullet as they tried to run away, police said.
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According to a charging affidavit, some witnesses said the three boys had been physically fighting over a bag of chips. Other witnesses said the 11-year-old was being bullied, an arrest report states.
Immediately following the shooting, the 11-year-old’s mother exits the car and runs around to grab her son, bringing him back over to the vehicle, the video shows. News 6 has cut out the portion of the video where the shooting took place.
[CLICK IN THE MEDIA PLAYER BELOW TO WATCH THE SECOND PORTION OF THE SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE]
In the arrest report, police said that the shooter’s mother explained that he had known the gun was in her vehicle, though she’d told him in the past not to handle the firearm, as it was for her protection.
The report also mentions that the mother told police that one of the victims had knocked food out of her son’s hands and hit him.
The police department also released 911 calls from the shooting, one of which came from the mother of one of the victims. Another came from a soccer coach who was on the scene in the aftermath of the shooting.
The 11-year-old boy was booked in the Juvenile Assessment Center afterward, Apopka Police Chief Mike McKinley said.
“When I interacted with him, he was very quiet, very shy, didn’t really say a whole lot when I was around,” McKinley said. “So I really didn’t discuss whether he was remorseful or not, but I know that he was very quiet. He looked very somber.”
McKinley also noted that he was shocked the 11-year-old was able to have access to a gun so quickly.
“Your firearm was in a box that didn’t have a lock on it,” said McKinley, adding that adults need to be more responsible. “We will be pursuing charges. For that crime, it is a second-degree misdemeanor. For all the parents out there, you have a firearm in your car or a firearm in your house, you have a responsibility to make sure that that firearm is secure and not accessible to your children because it only takes one bad decision and a split-second to ruin their lives.”
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