A 13-year-old Florida boy who ran away from a children’s home with a teenage girl and shot at police officers has not pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
The boy appeared in juvenile court Wednesday and was assigned to a program where he will likely spend regarding three years. He then he will be on parole. The Associated Press does not reveal his name because he is a minor.
Don Maxwell, a Volusia County police officer who hid behind a tree as he was shot, told the boy during the hearing that he forgave him.
“I challenge you to be better,” Maxwell said, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal. “I want to see you one day be the person I know you can be. You have a big heart. You have a long life ahead of you and I will say a prayer for you every day.”
The girl and boy, then 14 and 12 years old, respectively, fled the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home on June 1 last year following she became angry that she was not allowed to go out and catch lizards.
They broke into a house where they found an assault weapon, a rifle and other weapons. They began to shoot at the agents who were looking for them.
Officers eventually shot and wounded the girl following she walked out of the house and pointed a gun at them, authorities said. The girl is charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and armed robbery of a home.
Official documents show the girl was forced to undergo a mental health evaluation multiple times in 2018 for kicking and biting her mother, throwing rocks at a supervisor at a youth crisis shelter, holding a knife during an argument with her siblings. and smash a living room mirror with a bat. In 2018, she was charged with petty theft for stealing a dog valued at $1,500. In 2019, she was once more forced to undergo a psychological evaluation following she threatened to commit suicide and subsequently ended up in the children’s home.
The boy had previously threatened to kill another student and throw a brick at a school administrator, according to police documents.
