Texas boys who pulled guns on man outside his home are shot before they can rob him
Three armed boys were shot by a man they tried to rob outside his Texas homeauthorities said.
A total of four boys, ages 12 to 14, approached the potential victim, 25, shortly after midnight Thursday near his apartment on the 12700 Block of North Houston Rosslyn Road in Houston.
The man told police the boys had guns, but the man was also armed and shot at them outside his home at Willow Plaza Apartments.
Three of the boys were taken to hospital, while a 12-year-old was in intensive care after being shot multiple times.
The other two, ages 12 and 13, suffered non-fatal injuries, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
The boys involved also live in the apartment complex, ABC13 reported.
Panicked neighbors took action and called 911 when they saw the injured children.
A resident of the apartment complex, Bruce Bailey, said he noticed something was wrong when he heard one of the boys screaming for help.
Three boys, ages 12 to 14, were shot and injured as they tried to rob a 25-year-old man at gunpoint outside his Houston apartment complex, authorities said
Neighbor Bruce Bailey said he realized something was wrong when one of the boys started screaming for help
“I shouted at him, ‘Are you okay?’ And he just put his hand in the air and screamed for help, and I went over and tried to help him,” Bailey said KHOU.
‘I called the police and the ambulance to come pick up the child – and of course – at that time I didn’t know it was a small child.
“My other neighbor came and held his and talked to him, trying to keep him alive.”
Officers detained the man and the fourth child for questioning and several weapons were collected from the scene.
The adult would cooperate with the ongoing investigation. Although he was not immediately arrested, he remained at the scene when authorities arrived.
Investigators are determining whether the weapons the boys used were BB guns or real handguns.
“Of all things, because it’s Christmas and this is a child, the first thing that comes to my mind is, number one, where’s the parent. Number two, if you came here with a gun, what are you doing here with a gun?” Bailey told KHOU.
The sheriff’s office could not tell DailyMail.com whether the juveniles knew the man they tried to rob.
Detectives from the HCSO Violent Offenders are conducting the investigation, which will likely go to the Harris County District Attorney’s office for grand jury review.
The incident happened just after midnight on Thursday at the Willow Plaza Apartments in Houston
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said they are still investigating the situation and have recovered several weapons at the scene
Earlier this year, three children were arrested for robbing a Houston Wells Fargo bank.
The perpetrators, dubbed the “little thugs” by the FBI, were just 11, 12 and 13 years old when they robbed the bank on March 14.
Police said they passed a threatening note to a teller and fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash.
It was believed they were armed, but they did not actually display a weapon during the bank robbery.
According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the parents of two of the boys came forward and identified them after investigators released photos of them.
The third boy was recognized by the police after a fight. The sheriff’s office said a gun and a distinctive item depicted in one of the photos were recovered.