Sheriff: “To be clear, this is not a Sheriff’s Office arrest. We empower deputies to use discretion and to weigh the impact of arresting — in this case a 9-year-old — and how arresting them would impact them.”
By JENNIE McKEON
DEFUNIAK SPRINGS — A 9-year-old boy was arrested and booked at the Walton County Jail on Wednesday night after allegedly taking a prepaid cellphone from a store.
According to the arrest report from DeFuniak Springs Police Department, an officer was called to the Dollar General, located at 387 U.S. Highway 90, after a store employee complained of juveniles drinking and “possibly smoking crack” outside of the store.
The employee said she observed two “very young juveniles” go in and out of the store and then into the wooded area next to the store with an older couple. She said she believed they were smoking crack and they had walked out of view. Police searched the surrounding area for the suspects, but they were not located, the report said.
Police were called back to the store several minutes later regarding the same juveniles. They were observed on the store’s surveillance video cameras cutting cellphones out of box containers, placing them in their pockets and exiting the store without paying. The total cost for the two phones was $73.
The responding officer was still in the area when he observed a 9-year-old boy fitting the description of one of the juvenile suspects in the video. The boy was with his mother. As they approached the store, the employee confronted them. The juvenile admitted that he and his brother took the phones without paying. He said he still had one of the phones, but the other he gave to an unidentified female. His brother could not be located, the report said.
www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20170504/9-year-old-arrested-booked-into-county-jail
By JENNIE McKEON
DEFUNIAK SPRINGS — A 9-year-old boy was arrested and booked at the Walton County Jail on Wednesday night after allegedly taking a prepaid cellphone from a store.
According to the arrest report from DeFuniak Springs Police Department, an officer was called to the Dollar General, located at 387 U.S. Highway 90, after a store employee complained of juveniles drinking and “possibly smoking crack” outside of the store.
The employee said she observed two “very young juveniles” go in and out of the store and then into the wooded area next to the store with an older couple. She said she believed they were smoking crack and they had walked out of view. Police searched the surrounding area for the suspects, but they were not located, the report said.
Police were called back to the store several minutes later regarding the same juveniles. They were observed on the store’s surveillance video cameras cutting cellphones out of box containers, placing them in their pockets and exiting the store without paying. The total cost for the two phones was $73.
The responding officer was still in the area when he observed a 9-year-old boy fitting the description of one of the juvenile suspects in the video. The boy was with his mother. As they approached the store, the employee confronted them. The juvenile admitted that he and his brother took the phones without paying. He said he still had one of the phones, but the other he gave to an unidentified female. His brother could not be located, the report said.
www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20170504/9-year-old-arrested-booked-into-county-jail
