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A St. Louis-area mom turned her son into police after she learned he allegedly pointed a gun at a local pastor’s face and stole his car, authorities said.
"It was his mother becoming aware of the event and questioning her son and turning him over to the juvenile courts for prosecution," Capt. Donnell Moore of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said, according to KSDK. "Investigators are still working to find the second suspect."
The Rev. Mike Coleman said he was approached by a boy brandishing a gun and another young boy at Carondelet Baptist Church in South St. Louis last Friday evening. The pair allegedly demanded his car and other valuables.
"The pitch of the voice was high," Coleman said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I am thinking this isn’t real. But the gun in my face was very, very real."
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Pastor Mike Coleman next to photo of his church in St. Louis. (Carondelet Baptist Church - Facebook/Google Maps)
Coleman said he cooperated with the kids, handing over his wallet, phone and keys to his wife’s 2016 Dodge Caravan. He even helped the suspects unlock a driving club that was secured to the steering wheel and told them how to start the vehicle. He asked them not to do anything they would regret because a security camera was recording them.
"I didn’t want to get closer to these guys, but I was very cooperative," Coleman said. "There is no way these guys had driven a car before."
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He watched the car speed away down a ramp and crash into two cars on a nearby street. The suspects then fled on foot and abandoned the stolen car, according to the Post-Dispatch.
On Wednesday, Coleman received a link to sit in a court hearing on the matter and saw a 13-year-old boy on the call who was charged with first-degree robbery for the crime. His mom, a nurse who lives in nearby Florissant, had found out about the incident and turned the child over to the cops.
"It was surreal," Coleman said when he saw the young suspect.
"I commend her for turning him in because that's probably the hardest thing, but the best thing, she could do for him because these people he's dealing with, you don't know how desperate they are," Coleman told Fox News Digital, citing the boy might be involved with a group of adults who send kids out to do their "dirty work."
The Juvenile Detention Center in St. Louis, Mo. (Google Maps )
The mom of the unidentified child asked the court to release her son during the hearing.
"I am responsible enough to look after him at home," she told the court via telephone, according to the Post-Dispatch.
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The judge presiding over the case said during the hearing that the crime is "one of the most serious acts we can have before us here in the court."
Coleman also spoke during the hearing and told the court he is praying for the 13-year-old.
"We are praying for him, his cohort and his family," he said. "Crimes have to be paid for. Whatever is fair and just, let it happen."
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Coleman told KSDK that it is "important to prosecute not out of meanness or ugliness, but turning a life around" and hopes the boy gets on the right track after this incident.
A St. Louis Police vehicle sits on a street in LaClede's Landing in St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 15, 2015. (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
The pastor even hopes the young boy and his family will come to Carondelet to worship.
"We don’t exclude anybody," he said. "We are a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints."
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"I don't want this to define his life. I don't want this to follow him," Coleman told Fox News Digital, saying he wants the 13-year-old to "be a positive example" for others, especially younger children who could grow up to make similar mistakes.
The unidentified suspect does not have a criminal history and is being held at the city’s juvenile detention center.
Another hearing for the case is scheduled for Feb. 14. Police are still searching for the second suspect.
