UPDATE: 14 Year Old Florida Girl In Stable Condition After Shootout With Police

By Ty Ross

Volusia County Sheriff’s office has released body cam footage and helicopter video of a violent scene Tuesday evening involving law enforcement and two juveniles. A shootout that included exchange of fire between a 14 year old girl, 12 year old boy and Sheriff’s Deputies and ended with the girl being taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds. She is currently in stable condition.

The names of the two kids involved still has not been released by the media, but they were both residents of a group home in Deltona. Florida United Methodist Home has housed troubled and unwanted children for over a century. They have come under criticism for not being equipped to handle the increasingly violent children and cases at the home. In 2020 alone, there were over 300 calls placed to the Sheriff’s Department.

Before Tuesday’s shootout, the girl involved has been an instigator in several incidents in the past couple of months. Including setting fire to the halfway house she was at prior. This leaves many questions. What, if anything was being done to help someone who is very clearly troubled? Why was she allowed to be unsupervised around other children in the home knowing her tendency for violent and aggressive behavior?

AJ Bedizel was at a nearby grocery store with his daughters when the escaped kids broke into his home. Inside is where they found a handgun, shotgun pump, AK-47 and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Make no mistakes,Bedizel is a victim, however why were his weapons not locked up in a gun safe? How were two kids, unknown to him, able to access weapons and ammunition to begin a Bonnie & Clyde style shootout with the police?

According to the boy involved, when the police showed up, the girl was ready to engage in a shootout. According to the Sheriff’s Dept, the girl said that she wasn’t trying to ‘kill’ the officers, she merely wanted wound them. Whatever the case, she knew what she was doing. As did the boy, who admitted to firing at the officers as well before surrendering himself.

This never should have happened. These kids didn’t slip through the cracks, they slipped in a manhole. The group home, the agency responsible for placing the girl in an environment she could very easily cause harm either to herself, or others. The increasingly violent culture in this country and the ease and accessibility of guns. If you own a gun, you have a responsibility to secure it. Had the owner of the home done that, this may have ended very differently.

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