A teenage boy has been sentenced to a juvenile facility after he and a friend opened gunfire on police in Florida last June.
Travis O’Brien, now 13, was just 12 when he and Nicole Jackson, two years his senior, broke out of a local children’s home and forced their way into an empty house in Volusia County.
Police were called to reports of a break-in at the property and when they arrived, O’Brien and Jackson, armed with an AK-47, began shooting.
The gun battle lasted for 35 minutes, with viral footage showing an officer instructing Jackson – who he warns his colleagues “has a shotgun in her hand” – to “put the gun down now”.
Appearing in court on Wednesday, O’Brien pleaded no contest to charges of burglary, criminal mischief and attempted murder of law enforcement officers.
He was remanded to a maximum-risk assessment programme followed by a conditional release, and told the sentence cannot exceed his 21st birthday, according to NBC’s local news channel WESH.
O’Brien’s lawyer Jeff Deen told the station: “He’s a little tiny, little boy and he got into a big mess.
“He wasn’t in control of his situation and he can’t understand some of the things that we understand.”
At the time of the ‘shootout’, on 1 June 2021, O’Brien and Jackson – dubbed “Bonnie and Clyde” by local and national news – were living at Florida United Methodist Children’s Home when they decided to escape.
In a video clip, circulated on social media and by US newspapers, police can be heard disagreeing over whether or not to fire at the children.
One officer can be heard saying: “Female has a shotgun in her hand, stand by.” He is then heard shouting “put the gun down now”, before shots are fired.
“They’re shooting on me,” the officer tells colleagues via a radio. “Hold the air … She’s re-racking a round inside the shotgun.”
The dispatcher replies: “Let’s not engage them anymore. Let’s not challenge them.”
But the officer insists: “The window’s busted on the patio side. If she comes out she’s going to have the shotgun.”
Moments later, Jackson comes out of the house with a gun and is shot. “I think the female’s down,” an officer says in the clip. “Call in the units. Female’s on the ground behind the car.”
The footage then shows O’Brien surrendering and being taken into custody.
Jackson, then 14, was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries after being shot in the chest and arm but she recovered after surgery.
Now 15, she is yet to be sentenced for her involvement in the incident.
Last year, a couple, Shauna and Dan Willis, reportedly offered to adopt Jackson after talking to her by phone from her jail.
“We pray for her every day,” Ms Willis told the Indiana-based news channel WNDU.
