Boy, 11, Allegedly Took Mom's Gun to Shoot 2 13-Year-Olds After Fight at Football Practice

The 11-year-old has been charged with attempted second-degree murder

An 11-year-old boy in Florida has been charged with attempted murder after shooting and injuring two 13-year-olds over a disagreement on a football field — and additional charges will likely be filed against the adults who left the unlocked gun within reach of children, police say.

“We shouldn't have 11 year olds that have access to guns and think that they can resolve a dispute with a firearm,” Apopka Police Chief Mike McKinley said at a press conference Wednesday.

“As a society, we need to reflect on this,” he said, adding that: “the more disturbing part” of the shooting was that the incident was an illustration of a larger overarching misunderstanding among children, who view firearms as “a resolution to their problems, and it is not a resolution to anybody's problems. It just creates more problems for everybody involved: the victims, the suspects, the young kids — they’re ruining their lives.”

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The age of criminal responsibility in Florida is 16 years old, and there are no exceptions to that rule for kids under 14, so the 11-year-old will not be tried as an adult in accordance with state law.

A physical altercation between the three boys at a football practice Tuesday night quickly escalated in the parking lot of the Northwest Recreation Complex in Apopka, Fla., McKinley said, when the 11-year-old — whose name has not been released due to his age — reached into his mother’s car and allegedly retrieved a gun. Referencing surveillance footage of the scene, McKinley said that the two kids fled, but the boy fired a single shot, hitting both children before they could get away.

One 13-year-old was hit in the arm, hospitalized and has since been released from the hospital. The other was hit in the torso, underwent surgery and was in stable condition as of the Wednesday press conference.

The firearm was registered, but kept in a box without a lock, McKinley said, noting that having unsecured firearms within the reach of children is considered a second-degree misdemeanor in the state.

“For all parents out there, if 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 our youth,” McKinley said. "Because it only takes one bad decision in a split second to ruin their lives.”

McKinley described the alleged child shooter as “very quiet, very shy, didn't really say a whole lot when I was around,” and said he appeared “very somber over the incident.”

Booked into the Juvenile Assessment Center, the 11-year-old has so far been charged with one count of attempted murder in the second degree for the double-shooting, the chief said.

“We’re talking about an 11-year-old child here,” he said, acknowledging that the court system would ultimately decide if more charges follow. “I don't think there's a need to stack on charges on an 11-year-old child that has no criminal history.”

Saying he hoped the child received beneficial counseling through the court system, he added: “We want to make sure that he gets the assistance he needs to put this path down and become a productive member of our society.”

“He's 11,” McKinley added. “He has a long life ahead of him. There's no doubt that he can turn things around.”

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