10-Year-Old Boy Charged With A Felony For Pretending To Shoot Cars With A Fortnite Gun

written by @Choose_Wisely2

A game of Fortnite recently ended with a  felony charge for 10-year-old Gavin Carpenter.

Pretending to be a character in the video game Fortnite, Carpenter and his friend pretended to shoot at cars until one man stopped. The incident occurred July of 2019.

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

The angry driver phoned the police, and according to the Carpenter family, El Paso County sheriff’s deputies arrived and arrested both Carpenter and his friend, taking them both to the Colorado Springs Police Department for mugshots and fingerprinting.

Gavin’s parents, Chris and Stefanie, immediately hired an attorney to help get the charge expunged from their son’s record.

“It was a hard no, that the district attorney wasn’t going to throw this case out,” said Chris Carpenter. “That is when we moved into the diversion program.”

The diversion program required Carpenter to do community service, submit an essay, and do other miscellaneous tasks.

“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.

“The kids don’t understand the way the world thinks right now,” Gavin’s mom Stephanie said. “So, they don’t know what we know…they are kids.”

Stefanie Carpenter, who shared the story of her 10-year-old son, said she waited 217 days because she wanted to have the Class 5 felony charge of menacing expunged from Gavin’s record before coming forward.

“We waited to tell our story until now because we had to wait until this was expunged from his record,” Carpenter wrote. “The fewer people that knew, the better until this nightmare was officially over.”

“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.