Safford police officers responded to an apartment complex last Friday in reference to 10-year-old boy who allegedly attacked a six-year-old boy. The younger boy’s sister apparently called authorities to report the incident.
Police arrived at the apartment complex at approximately 5:00 PM. Upon arrival, they spoke to the mother of the 10-year-old, who said that her son had asked to go hiking with a friend. When she told him, ‘no,’ he got upset and went outside. She went out to talk to him but he ran off.
Officers then spoke to the mother of the 6-year-old. She told the officers that the 10-year-old had a history of picking on her son and said that it’s been an ongoing problem.
She told authorities that she was in her apartment and heard her young son yelling that the 10-year-old boy was coming to get him. When the mother went into the living room area, she saw her 6-year-old son trying to hold the door shut as the 10-year-old was trying to force his way into the house. The mother of the 6-year-old moved her son out of the way of the door and told the older boy to stop, but he was able to push past her and enter the apartment, where he went after the younger boy. The older boy pushed the younger child to the floor with enough force that he slid on the tile floor in the kitchen. The mother of the 6-year-old put herself in between the boys as the older boy tried to kick the younger boy as he was laying on the floor. The mother picked up her son to protect him from the 10-year-old assailant. The younger boy’s 16-year-old sister came in and began yelling at the older boy to get out of their apartment. The older boy ran out of the home yelling in anger and broke one of the windows as he ran by the outside of the apartment. He apparently ran away from the apartment complex and out into the desert. The mother of the younger boy said the older boy has been a big problem and she wanted to press charges.
Officers examined the broken window and found a small spot of blood on the curtain. They looked for a trail of blood the boy might have left, but could not find any blood other than on the curtain.
An Attempt to Locate (ATL) was put out on the 10-year-old boy. Officers spoke to the mother of the boy and advised her that they would be looking for her son and asked her to call if he came home. An officer called Juvenile Probation and explained the situation. The probation officer said that they don’t normally hold 10 year old juveniles.
At approximately 6:00 p.m., an officer spoke to the mother of the 10-year-old, who said that she had located her son running in the desert. She said that she could not get close to him because he kept running from her. Two officers arrived in the area and located the boy on a hill about 75 yards away. The boy was sitting by a bush, but his mother said that he would run if they tried to approach him. The mother said she had tried to talk to the boy but he told her that he was not coming back.
One of the officers said he would drive closer to the boy and try to make contact with him. As he was walking to his car the mother told her older son to hurry and get the younger boy. Officers asked him not to go, fearing the younger boy would just run farther away. The mother then said to her son, “Go get him before the police get him.” The older boy walked off in the direction of his younger brother. The officers tried to explain to the mother that they were trying to help her and she needed to work with them. They told her that they didn’t want to chase the young boy all over the desert.
At that point the mother of the boy apparently became argumentative and uncooperative. The officer finally told her that he would be long forming charges to the juvenile probation department and that she should contact him when her son comes home. The woman began walking away, yelling about how she see’s how the police are and that they don’t want to help her. As the officer walked back to his car, she yelled that she was going to post about the incident on Facebook and say that her son was going to hurt himself. The officer asked her if her son would hurt himself, but she did not answer and walked away, yelling obscenities at the officers.
