Two young boys wearing Minecraft and Star Wars pyjamas brandished a loaded gun at officers during a standoff.
The pyjama-clad boys, aged seven and nine, hid behind a box outside their home in New Mexico with a loaded handgun, which they passed to each other as armed officers yelled at them.
Armed sheriff’s deputies took cover behind a nearby wall as they tried to talk the boys into putting the weapon down, or ‘you’re gonna get hit.’
Then one of the boys decides to pull the trigger, but the gun malfunctions.
It is unclear how the boys got the gun, but it was revealed that the pair had been ‘taught how to use the firearm,’ Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said.
Footage of the tense moment on February 16 was released on Friday to show the use of drones and involvement of the Sheriff’s Behavioural Health Unit to diffuse the situation.
A tactical drone hovering above the pair captured how the boys passed the gun before waving it towards the deputies.
Sheriff Allen said in a press conference: ‘Had that gun gone off, our deputies could have taken deadly force. That would not have gone well with anybody in the nation.’
Officers pleaded with the boys to ‘put it down’ and come and talk to them.
When the children do not react, a male officer tells a shooter to aim at a wall in a bid to scare the boys, saying ‘try not to hit ’em.’
Another officer says: ‘We want to help you. We don’t want to hurt you.
‘Drop it now or you’re gonna get hit!’
After discussing whether to rush the boys, fire a non-lethal round or wait, two rubber bullets are shot at them.
Despite the intervention, the boys still clutch onto the gun.
An officer then dashes to the children in their hiding place and grabs the weapon from one of the pyjama-clad boys.
What happened to the boys?
The boys’ family is troubled, and officers have been called to the home at least 50 times before the standoff.
Sheriff Allen said the boys and their family have a documented history of trauma.
Although the boys demonstrated ‘learned behaviour’ in handling the gun, Sheriff Allen said they will be rehabilitated rather than locked up.
He said: ‘Arresting people isn’t the only way out of this crisis of juvenile crime. You have to look at it from a bunch of different avenues and use the resources you have – and then criminal elements can come later.’
However, had the boys been older, ‘we’d probably be speaking differently,’ he admitted.
Behavioural experts who attended the incident said trying to get help for the boys and their family in the aftermath ‘pushed the system to its breaking point’ due to their complex needs.
Whoever gave the boys the weapon could still be held criminally liable for it after the Bennie Hargrove law was passed in the state in 2023, following a fatal shooting at an Albuquerque middle school.
Last year, 5,151 children and teenagers were shot in the US, leading to 1,403 deaths, according to the Gun Violence Archive. In total, there were 16,576 firearm deaths last year, excluding suicides.
