Two Ten-Year-Old Boys Charged With Felony For Playing With Toy Guns

Two young boys from Fort Carson, Colorado, were arrested and charged with a felony for playing with toy guns outside. The incident happened last July, but the parents of one of the boys are speaking out now that their son's record is expunged.

Ten-year-old Gavin Carpenter and his friend were playing a real-life version of the video game Fortnite using toy guns. While they were playing, they pointed the guns at cars as they passed by, pretending to shoot them.

"The toy bow was an orange Nerf bow. It didn't work. Nothing could shoot out of it. Nothing would come out of it. The weapon, well toy I had, had an orange tip. It was also broken and couldn't shoot anything out of it," Gavin told KXRM.

After pretending to shoot around ten cars, one of the motorists slammed on his brakes and started chasing after Gavin and his friend.

"He slammed his brakes and started reversing as fast as he could," Gavin said. "He came up and started getting very heated and was very mad. I was at the time, very scared."

The two boys ran to his friend's grandparents' house, where the motorist parked and called the police. Video recorded by the family's Ring doorbell camera showed the irate man screaming at somebody near the front door.

When the police arrived, they took Gavin and his friend away in handcuffs and charged them with Felony Menacing, a Class 5 felony. Gavin tried to explain they were just playing and did not mean to threaten or scare anybody.

His family tried to get the charges dropped, but the district attorney refused.

"It was just a hard no, that the District Attorney wasn't going to throw this out," Gavin's father Chris said. "That is when we moved into the diversion program."

Gavin had his record expunged after completing the program, which included community service.

"So if you run his name, nothing will show up, but he did have a Class Five Felony on there for at least half a year," Chris said.

Gavin's parents said the incident has shattered their son's trust in the police, and they are trying to build it back up.

"Were trying to establish now for the boys a few events to help build trust in law enforcement because it was shattered. We want them to not be scared and show that law enforcement is their friends, and they need to show them the proper respect," Chris said.