A clerk can be seen grabbing the boy in this image from surveillance video. (YouTube)
(Newser)
–
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.