A Boston neighborhood is stunned after two young siblings were robbed at gunpoint while running a lemonade stand in South Boston.
The frightening robbery happened Wednesday afternoon while 12-year-old David Byrne and his 11-year-old sister were selling lemonade, according to the Boston Police Department.
Police said two suspects approached the children’s stand, and one of them showed a gun tucked in his waistband before stealing the kids’ cash box and running away.
David told CBS Boston that he and his sister were working the stand when one of the suspects grabbed the box and “showed us the gun.”
“My sister, she put her hands up, and I said, ‘You can have it,’” David said. “But after that, I was a little annoyed because we were 12 and 11, and you shouldn’t really do that.”
Investigators released surveillance photos that appear to show the masked suspects running away with a pink box after the robbery. Police also shared a short video showing the suspects walking in the area around the time of the incident.
As of Friday morning, no arrests had been made. Boston Police Sgt. Detective John Boyle told The Independent that the suspects had not been identified and the case remains under active investigation.
The children’s mother, Jennifer Byrne, said she was at work when she got the terrifying call from her kids.
“They called me, I’m at work. They’re hysterical and say, ‘Someone just came with a gun and took all our money,’” she told 7 News Boston.
Their father, David Byrne, said the entire ordeal was hard to believe.
“It was heartbreaking, it was chilling,” he said. “I was honestly like, ‘This can’t be real.’”
The robbery has shaken the family and angered neighbors who say the lemonade stand was supposed to be a simple, safe piece of childhood.
Now, the South Boston community is rallying around the kids.
Nicole and Jonathan Raukohl, friends of the Byrne family, told CBS Boston they are organizing a neighborhood lemonade sale to raise money for a local gun violence prevention organization. The siblings’ friends also helped them paint a new lemonade stand after the robbery.
“I’m angry, I’m angry that this happened in this community that we love,” Nicole Raukohl said. “We’re not just going to let that happen, this is safe place usually and for this to happen is incredibly sad.”
Jonathan Raukohl said neighbors want the children to know they should not have to give up their everyday joys because of one frightening incident.
“It’s safe, it’s fun and they literally do this every day, and this is one thing that happened,” he said. “So of course it’s awful, right, but we want them to know we’re not going to stop them playing on the street, we’re not going to stop them hanging out with the kids around.”
Police are still searching for the suspects.
Is anyone surprised that those were a couple of ngrs…