Police: 8-year-old shot rifle over people's heads in the street

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Martavious Ruff was shocked to see a group of kids firing what looked to him like an assault rifle Friday night.
 
"You find yourself stuck in that situation, it's a scary thing," Ruff said.  He was walking down Glenn Street in Rock Hill when he felt something.
 
"I heard the bullets fly past my head," he said.
 
He started yelling at the children to put the gun away.
 
"By the time I got to the top of the hill, they ran in the house," he said.
 
Rock Hill police later found the gun. It was not an assault rifle, but a semiautomatic .22 hidden under a bed at the home of an 8-year-old boy who police said was involved.
 
Police said the boy was shooting the rifle, and led officers to the gun in his house.
 
The 8-year-old's mother, Latoya Carter, wasn't home at the time. She said a 13-year-old was watching the kids.  She told Channel 9 she doesn't own a gun, and told police she's a convicted felon, and therefore can't have a gun.
 
"There wasn't a gun here when I left here.  So, for somebody to call and say there's a gun, and one of the kids has shot a gun, it didn't know what to do," Carter said.
 
Carter said her son probably couldn't lift and shoot such a weapon.  She believes older children with him did instead. On Friday night police seized the rifle, but did not make any arrests.
 
Ruff, who called 911, believes police should've done more.
 
"They got the gun and whatnot, but they're saying they couldn't charge nobody.  Why is that?" he said.
 
Executive Officer Mark Bollinger with Rock Hill police said detectives reopened the case on Monday morning.
 
"They had several more questions about it that they want to answer," he said.
 
As of late Monday, it was not known who owned the gun.  It will have to be traced through the ATF.  Police also don't know how it got into the hands of young children.
 
Because of the age of the boy, police are not going to charge him.   They said it'll be a while before they get to the bottom of this, and figure out if anyone else will face charges.

WSOC