Three boys in Houston were shot by a man they allegedly tried to rob in the early morning of Thursday, Dec. 26.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a call at an apartment complex on N. Houston Rosslyn Road around 12 a.m. local time. When they arrived at the scene, they found a 12-year-old boy “with multiple gunshot wounds lying on the ground,” the HCSO said in a news alert shared with PEOPLE.
Deputies then found two other males, one 12 and another 13, who had also been shot at a nearby apartment complex.
All three juvenile males are being treated at a local hospital. The one who “sustained numerous gun shots” is in the ICU, and the other two “are stable with non-life threatening wounds,” according to police.
A male, 25, told police that the three boys approached and allegedly “pointed guns at him in an attempt to rob him.” He was detained and is cooperating with police.
A fourth juvenile was also detained, Major Saul Suarez of the HCSO said in a press briefing on Thursday, adding that authorities recovered “multiple weapons so far” from the scene and are searching for more.
The girlfriend of the man who allegedly shot the teen boys told ABC 13 that she and the adult male were returning from a Christmas party and she had fallen asleep in the car. When they arrived home, their vehicle was allegedly surrounded by four boys who were armed. She said her boyfriend initially thought it was a joke as the alleged suspects are young.
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One neighbor, Bruce Bailey, said he witnessed the incident and jumped in to help after one of the boys began yelling for help.
“I screamed out to him, ‘Are you OK?’ And he just put his hand in the air and screamed for help and I went and tried to help him,” Bailey told KHOU 11. He added that he called the police as his “other neighbor came and held [the juvenile male’s] hand and was talking to him, trying to keep him alive.”
Asked if the weapons the juvenile males allegedly used were “actual firearms” or “replicas,” Suarez said in the news briefing that authorities have “what appear to be weapons” in their possession.
The case is set to go before a grand jury for review.
