'Don't Make Me Do This': FL Cop Before Shooting Armed Teen Girl

VOLUSIA COUNTY, FL — Two runaway kids, ages 12 and 14, shot at police with guns that included an AK-47 at a home they’ve been accused of breaking into Tuesday night before police fired back and critically wounded the 14-year-old girl, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. The sheriff passionately addressed media outlets about the incident, which lasted over 35 minutes, and which he said nearly turned deadly for the deputies who responded.

“Where have we gone wrong, that a 12-year-old and 14-year-old think it is OK to take on law enforcement?” Chitwood said. He noted that deputies did not initially fire back after being shot at multiple times by the young pair he called “desperadoes,” who were reported missing hours earlier from the Florida United Methodist Children's Home.

“Our deputies did everything they could to de-escalate, and they almost lost their lives,” Chitwood said.

A bodycam video from Volusia County officials was shared later Tuesday, WKMG and others reported. The deputy who shot the armed girl can be heard saying, "Don't make me do this" while using a tree on the property to shield him from the gunfire, the video shows.

Chitwood said a witness called police to report the two kids breaking into the Enterprise home on Enterprise Osteen Road, but deputies then called the homeowner first to see whether anyone was allowed inside.

Had it been Chitwood responding himself, the sheriff said he would have gone into the home to arrest the pair, and that the deputies used “restraint” in not doing so.

The homeowner told police that not only was no one allowed inside, there was an AK-47, a pump shotgun and a handgun inside the home, along with about 200 rounds of ammunition.

What followed was the 12-year-old — who Chitwood said is insulin-dependent and was on the verge of a possible “critical medical emergency” without his medication — firing the AK-47 and the 14-year-old using the pump shotgun and twice pointing it at deputies before being shot.

Police went into life-saving mode — including using a tourniquet — to help the 14-year-old, whose condition was upgraded from critical to stable at Central Florida Regional Hospital late on Tuesday.

After some time, the 12-year-old boy put down the AK-47 and surrendered to police, Chitwood said. Neither the deputies nor the 12-year-old were injured in Tuesday night's standoff.

The boy appeared in court on Thursday on an attempted first degree murder charge, and was ordered by a judge to be detained for 21 days "or until further order of the court," according to WKMG.

The intense showdown is part of a larger problem involving the juvenile justice system in Florida, Chitwood said. He said the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice is “consistently sending kids that need to be in their facilities out into our communities.”

Patch has reached out to Chitwood and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice for more on the issue.

Chitwood said in his news conference that places such as Volusia County aren’t able to “handle” children like the armed pair in Enterprise.

Chitwood called the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home in Enterprise, where the 12- and 14-year-old were reported missing from, “a complete failure, and disgrace to the juvenile justice system.”

Due to Tuesday night's incident, Kitwana McTyer, president and CEO of the children's home, said in a statement to media the organization will temporarily stop its emergency shelter care program until "we feel that we can do so in a safe manner for the children coming into care, and simultaneously protect our staff."

"At this juncture, the level of children who are being sent to us through Emergency Shelter care at times is beyond the scope of our capabilities to provide the care required and limits who we can serve as part of our mission."

McTyer, echoing some of Chitwood's thoughts, said Tuesday's incident "is the result of the system failing our children."

"These children are in desperate need of care in the appropriate setting, which is a higher level of care than we provide," McTyer said. "As we have partnered with our lead agency in this program since 2007, we have found in recent times that we are seeing a higher level of children who repeatedly come through the system with escalated behaviors. We simply cannot continue to be 'everything to everyone.'”