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A 10-year-old Chicago boy opened fire on police officers during a tense standoff outside a home in Chicago on Monday (July 24). Officers were called to the home around 11:20 a.m. after receiving a 911 call that the boy had fired several shots inside the house.
As officers arrived, the young boy stepped out on the porch and pointed a gun at them. He then pointed the gun at his own before pointing it at the officers and firing a single shot.
Officers took cover and fired a beanbag round toward the boy. The round missed, and the boy went back inside. He came back outside again and pointed the gun at his head and at the officers. Before he could fire another shot, officers fire pepper spray, causing the boy to drop the gun.
The officers then detained the boy, and he was transported to the hospital for observation. Officials said that nobody was injured during the stand-off.
Chicago Police Deputy Chief Migdalia Bulnes praised the officers for ending the stand-off peacefully.
“It really puts your training into perspective,” she said. “It’s a little bit more delicate because he’s 10 years old, and he’s in distress. And we know that. He’s a child, so that’s what’s in our mind when we have discussions of what’s the next step.”
The boy’s grandfather, Thurston Daniels, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the boy got mad at his mother when she asked him to help clean up around the house. During the argument, he grabbed a gun from her purse and started shooting.
Authorities have not said what charges, if any, would be filed as a result of the incident.