Police arrested the mother of an 11-year-old boy charged with attempted murder in Florida on Thursday.
Sharelle Johnson, 33, is facing a culpable negligence charge that is punishable by up to five years in the Florida Department of Corrections for her role in a shooting that injured two children at a Pop Warner football practice, a spokesperson for the Office of the State Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit said in a statement.
The State’s Attorney’s office says that Johnson owned the gun used by her son to allegedly shoot the other two boys back in October.
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“On October 2, 2023, Ms. Johnson’s 11-year-old son was able to obtain a loaded firearm from an unsecured cardboard box that was left in her vehicle. As a result, two children were shot and injured,” the state’s attorney’s office spokesperson writes in the statement. “The cardboard box that held the weapon was worn and tattered, did not have any safety locks or fasteners and was easily accessible.”
The spokesperson then explains that an individual “can be charged with culpable negligence by storing or leaving a loaded firearm within the reach or easy access of a minor and the minor obtains the firearm and uses it to inflict injury or death upon himself or herself or any other person.”
The surveillance video from the incident appears to show the 11-year-old run away from one of the victims. Once he reaches his vehicle, the video shows the shooter as he opens the passenger door and grabs what police later described as a “small purple gun.”
The shooter then turns around and lunges at the two boys before firing a single bullet that police said entered and exited the first victim, and then hit the second victim.
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Johnson, police noted in a news conference shortly after her son’s arrest, sat in the car before and during the shooting.
The son is facing one count of attempted murder, and both he and his mother have been released from custody ahead of their trials.
Johnson posted $2500 bail and is not allowed to own or possess a firearm as a condition of her parole. Her lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Both of the victims were hospitalized but made full recoveries.
The three boys were all involved in Pop Warner football and had been fighting over a bag of chips during practice, according to police.
