Chilling video shows 2 young brothers handling gun before one of them pulls the trigger

An alarming video captured the infinitesimal 2 young brothers passed a loaded weapon backmost and distant and adjacent pulled the trigger astatine constabulary successful New Mexico earlier this year.

At astir 12:30 p.m. connected Feb. 16, the 7-year-old and 9-year-old took turns handling the firearm successful Albuquerque, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office told USA TODAY connected Monday, May 12.

Drone footage shared by authorities shows the brothers, 1 wearing an Minecraft T-shirt and the different wearing a Star Wars one, hiding the limb down their backs.

"Put it down, baby," 1 lawman is heard saying successful the video earlier respective voices are heard shouting astatine the brace to driblet the weapon immediately, assemblage camera footage showed.

Sheriff John Allen said that deputies fired a non-lethal circular to distract the boys, aft which 1 of them pointed the weapon and fired it, but it malfunctioned, according to the Albuquerque Journal and the Associated Press.

Had the weapon gone off, Allen said “our deputies could person taken deadly force," according to the Journal.

"That would not person gone good with anybody successful the nation," helium said.

Soon aft a lawman approached the boys and was capable to get the gun, according to the sheriff's office. The brothers were swiftly detained without immoderate injuries and the weapon was seized.

No arrests made amid ongoing investigation

No arrests person been made arsenic of May 12, according to Sheriff Deputy Connor Otero. The boys stay successful their parents' custody, the Journal reported.

Criminal charges are pending an ongoing probe into what led to the incident, Otero said.

In a quality release, the sheriff's bureau said its drone exertion allowed deputies to "secure the country swiftly and safely, yet preventing a imaginable deadly unit brushwood with the juveniles."

"This lawsuit illustrates the analyzable intersection of juvenile crime, intelligence health, and nationalist safety," Sheriff John Allen said successful the quality release. "We are taking important steps to adjacent work gaps and grow our quality to enactment with juveniles progressive successful firearms oregon convulsive crimes."

This nonfiction primitively appeared connected USA TODAY: Video shows 2 young brothers handling weapon earlier 1 pulls trigger