Girl, 14, shot after firing at deputies during standoff

DELTONA, Fla. — Deputies in central Florida shot and wounded a 14yearold girl after they say she and a 12yearold boy opened fire with a shotgun and AK47 from a house they broke into after fleeing a juvenile home.

The girl was in stable condition after surgery, the Volusia County Sheriff ’s Office said in a news release early Wednesday, and charges were pending against both juveniles in the Tuesday evening violence near Deltona. The deputies were put on administrative leave pending a review, officials said.

A visibly angry Sheriff Mike Chitwood said at a news conference late Tuesday that the juveniles had shot at officers from the house multiple times over about a halfhour while deputies tried to deescalate the situation and, eventually, returned fire. He said this was “something I’ve never seen in 35 years in policing.”

“This is like Bonnie and Clyde at 12 years old and 14 years of age,” Chitwood said.

The juvenile home in Deltona reported the pair missing on Tuesday evening, telling authorities the boy is diabetic and needed insulin every four hours. They said the girl hit a staff member with a stick before running away, a sheriff ’s news release said.

As deputies were searching the area around 7:30 p.m., a passerby flagged them down and reported hearing glass breaking at a nearby house.

Deputies saw the pair inside the home and contacted its owner, who said no one was supposed to be at the home, while advising authorities that there was a shotgun, an AK47 and 200 rounds of ammunition inside.

Deputies surrounded the house and began talking to the pair. The girl threatened to kill a sheriff ’s sergeant and fired at him multiple times about 8:30 p.m., the sheriff said.

Authorities said the children fired at the deputies four separate times over the next 35 minutes. At one point, Chitwood said, an officer went close enough to the home to toss a cell phone inside to try to talk to them.

The girl eventually came out of the garage with the shotgun and pointed it at deputies. They repeatedly asked her to drop the weapon, Chitwood said. She walked back into the garage.

“She comes back a second time and that’s when deputies open fire and she takes multiple rounds,” Chitwood said.

As the deputies provided medical aid to the girl, the boy, who was armed with the AK47, surrendered, the release said.