Cops: Boy, 8, Used Mom's Gun In Stickup Bid

FEBRUARY 5--Pointing a loaded handgun that he took from his mother’s purse, an eight-year-old Florida boy tried to hold up a West Palm Beach grocery store, but was thwarted by a worker who snatched the weapon from the child, police report.

According to cops, the boy entered the King Foods & Meat Bazaar Wednesday evening wearing a bicycle helmet and a sweater covering his face. The child is seen in the market's doorway in the adjacent surveillance camera image.

The boy, investigators say, approached a checkout counter and pointed the 9mm gun at a cashier and said, “Give me the fucking money.” At this point, a second employee pounced on the child and disarmed him.

In a WPBF interview, the boy’s mother, Eboni Alls, 29, said that she realized that her gun was missing when, “I grabbed my purse, it was so light.” Alls, a mother of five, added, “I said, ‘Where my gun?’ The first thing I thought was, 'I hope Jayden don't have my gun.'”

Alls, a West Palm Beach Police Department noted, “had a legit FL concealed weapons permit.”

Seen at left, Alls said that her son claimed he was riding his bike to a local park. It was only after he departed that she discovered her handgun missing.

Investigators today announced that they will not pursue criminal charges against the boy, though he will have to enter into a juvenile diversion program. He has also been barred from returning to the market. (2 pages)