A 15-year-old male was arrested after police said he robbed a 12-year-old boy at gunpoint.
Latellis V. Everett, 15, will be charged with armed robbery, resisting an officer with violence, criminal mischief and violation of probation. Police said charges against the suspect will be filed against him as an adult, which is why we are identifying him.
According to police, the boy said he was riding his bicycle in the Citrus Grove Apartment Complex on 15th Street S at 9 p.m. Wednesday when he was approached by Everett.
Everett demanded the boy's bicycle, and when the boy refused to hand it over, Everett pulled out a dark-colored semi-automatic handgun from his waistband and pointed it at the boy, again demanding the bicycle, police said.
Everett then poked the boy in the chest with the barrel of the gun and pushed him off his bike onto the ground, police said. Everett pulled a small amount of cash from the boy's pants pocket and rode away on the boy's bike.
Angela Roberson has lived across the street for more than 50 years.
She said, "It's sad. It's sad because, like I said, they don't have the proper guidance, the proper influence, on their lives to show them what exactly what it is that they're supposed to be doing."
Her son is 12 and she says it's proper parenting that helps keep her son, Ezekiel, on the right path.
"Momma don't play," she said. "When I tell him to do things, I expect him for him to do it."
She hopes that this incident will serve as a lesson for other children in the neighborhood.
"I just hope that the other kids over there will learn from this," Roberson said.
Police said the boy did not initially report the incident out of fear of retaliation by the suspect, but the boy's father heard about the robbery from a man who had witnessed it. The boy's father brought him to police headquarters on Thursday afternoon to make a report, and the boy identified the suspect from a photo line-up.
Everett was arrested at his home Thursday afternoon. Police said that he became combative while detectives were interviewing him at the station, and that he had to be restrained. He continued to fight when officers put him in a cruiser, and at one point managed to break out the rear right-side passenger window of the cruiser.
Police said one of the officers sustained a laceration above his left eye, which required stitches to close.
Everett was supposed to be on court-ordered home detention at the time of the robbery. Police said the suspect and another 15-year-old fired a handgun from a car as they passed an outdoor birthday party on April 27. The teenager was wounded by retaliatory gunfire during the incident.
Police said they are still looking for the handgun used in the robbery. Anyone with information is asked to call the St. Petersburg Police at the non-emergency number at 727-893-7780, Text-A-Tip to 727-420-8911 or leave a confidential tip at 727-892-5000.