CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A 12-year-old and his 6-year-old brother robbed a woman at gunpoint in southwest Charlotte Sunday morning, police said.
The two children walked up to the woman around 8 a.m. in an apartment complex parking lot and asked to use her phone. She gave it to them and they ran, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Capt. Jason Helton said at a press conference Monday.
The robbery took place near apartments in the 2100 block of Diamond Creek Circle near South Tryon Street and I-485 in Charlotte’s Steele Creek area.
The 39-year-old woman, who was not identified by police, chased the two children and the 12-year-old pulled out a gun and attempted to pistol whip her, Helton said. Police later identified the gun as a BB gun.
The two children returned to a nearby apartment and CMPD was able to locate them and call their mother, Helton said.
CMPD is familiar with the family and the mother was cooperative, he said.
Officers confiscated the gun and charged the 12-year-old with armed robbery and destruction of property.
Days prior to the robbery, the 12-year-old posed with the gun on social media, Helton said.
“Know where your kids are, what they are doing, what’s on their social media,” he said.
Helton said kids as young as 11 and 12 are increasingly committing crimes in Charlotte.
The 6-year-old is being treated as a victim of his circumstances and of his older sibling, not an accomplice, Helton said.
