A 12-year-old boy was arrested after he was caught robbing a gas station at gun point in Hartford, Michigan. The boy also fired a shot in the air before taking away money from the cashier at the Marathon gas station.
The boy, whose name was not released by the authorities, was reportedly charged with six felonies in Van Buren County Family Court Thursday.
Boy Was Carrying Handgun in His Backpack
The video which surfaced on social media shows the 12-year-old carrying a backpack, standing in queue at the counter.
He then calmly approaches the cashier and asks her to hand over the cash. "Put the money in the bag," the child is heard saying as pulls out a handgun from his backpack. Shocked, the female clerk asks, "What?" as the child repeats his demand.
"Are you serious?" she asks. At this point, the 12-year-old is seen pointing the gun towards the store's ceiling and firing a shot in the air. A man standing behind the boy, jumps back in fear.
"OK!" the scared clerk is heard shouting as pulls out a money bag from the counter and hands it over to the shooter. "Here. Get out. Bye. Take it," she says. The boy calmly puts the money bag into his backpack and walks out of the store.
Cashier Thought It Was a Joke
WZZM reported that Hartford Police Chief Tressa Beltran responded to the scene within 90 seconds of receiving the emergency call. The outlet reported that the boy was arrested a few blocks away from the gas station.
The police revealed that prior to committing the robbery, the alleged accused had attended the school and discussed with a classmate which gas station would be the easiest to rob in town.
"The boy went home, changed clothes, got into a parent's gun safe and retrieved a 9mm handgun with two loaded magazines.
"He put the gun in a backpack and then walked about a mile to the gas station," Lt. Mike Prince told the outlet.
Prince said that following the arrest, the pre-teen failed to give a motive for robbery. Stating that "he didn't do it for the money" the boy said that he said he would've thrown the money into the sewer. "He wouldn't give us an explanation why he did it," the officer said.
The store clerk, who identified herself as Jessica, told the outlet that she thought that the kid was not even 10 years old.
"He sounded way too calm. I seriously thought it was a prank until I heard the gun go off," Jessica said. "Part of me wanted to hold the kid because he has so many problems, then it's hard to feel bad when he did something like this," she went on to add.
