The Boston Police Department is looking for two boys accused of robbing a children’s lemonade stand at gunpoint.
The suspects on Wednesday afternoon made multiple passes by the lemonade stand run by two siblings before asking the kids if they took Apple Pay. After that, they nabbed a box full of cash, with one displaying a gun in his waistband as they fled, Boston police said.
The mother of the two children, Jennifer Byrne, told WBTS-TV “my daughter called me, I’m at work. She was in hysterics, crying, saying, ’Somebody put a gun to us and took all of our money.’”
Tiffany Byrne, the aunt of the two children running the stand, David, 12, and Juliette, 11, told The New York Times that while neither child was harmed, both “were pretty shaken up.” She estimated that about $80 was taken. Police said in a report cited by the Boston Herald that about $50 was taken.
The police uploaded video and photos of the two suspects, both of whom were wearing full black ski masks, also known as “shiesty” masks.
The two victims said the suspect who displayed the gun was “a dark-skinned Black male about 14 years old wearing a black Nike sheisty, black shirt, unknown color shorts and high white socks,” while the second was a “a light-skinned Black male about 11 years old with a black sheisty and unknown clothing description,” according to the police report cited by the Boston Herald.
Boston City Councillor Ed Flynn, who represents the part of Boston where the incident took place, said on Facebook that “there is little I can think of more disturbing than the innocence of a children’s lemonade stand being violated by an armed robbery,” adding that the city needs more police officers.
Mr. Flynn also posted a flyer on Facebook telling people to come out to the general area where the incident occurred at 5:30 p.m. Friday to support the lemonade stand.
The police ask that anyone with information call (617) 343-4742.
