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Photo Credit: Lauren Edwards/FOX 2

DETROIT (FOX 2) –
A 16-year-old has been arrested for shooting a 14-year-old boy in the head and wounding his own mother in the arm just before 6 p.m. on Detroit’s west side Thursday.

The 14-year-old boy is in critical condition and the injured woman is expected to recover, according to Deputy Chief Charles Fitzgerald of Detroit police.

Authorities said the attack stemmed from an argument between a 6- and 8-year-old boy on Delaware Avenue in the Virginia Park neighborhood.

When the 8-year-old boy caught the 14-year-old member of his family, the 13-year-old was one of the relatives who intervened to separate the two.

“When they come back to the area, it’s like 13 and 14-year-olds chattering away,” Fitzgerald told FOX 2. “There is a 16-year-old man returning from home. The 16-year-old boy comes and tries to stop him. He takes out his gun and starts shooting.”

The 16-year-old boy then allegedly shot the 14-year-old boy in the head, then shot his own mother in the arm. According to DPD, the 16-year-old is the 13-year-old’s cousin.

Fitzgerald said the 14-year-old boy’s condition was “extremely critical.” It is unclear whether the 14-year-old boy is related to the woman.

Detroit police said the 16-year-old was quickly taken into custody because, while fleeing, he passed a DPD undercover operation working on a separate case.

“Undercover officers took the young man,” Fitzgerald told FOX 2’s Lauren Edwards. “He fit the description, his heart rate was very high (after the police stopped him).

“The first thing he asked when they got him into the (police) car was, ‘How’s my mom doing?’ happened.”

Fitzgerald said this is yet another example of unnecessary shootings involving children when there should have been a peaceful resolution.

“We currently have a 14-year-old child in critical condition due to a stupid fight between a 6-year-old child and an 8-year-old child. He is currently in surgery and our suspect’s mother was also shot in the arm,” he said. “For him to bring a gun into an argument between a 6 and 8-year-old boy and think it was the right thing to do.”

Stay tuned to FOX 2 for more information as it becomes available.

Photo Credit: FOX 2 Photographer Howard Mitchell