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Carjacking Victim Says Attackers Were Armed And Looked About 10 Years Old

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A carjacking victim told detectives her offenders appeared to be 10 years old and armed.

They were also seen on a neighbor's surveillance camera.

The carjacking happened in the 1400 block of West Thomas Street in the Noble Square neighborhood around 8:15 Saturday morning.

"It makes you think a little bit more; makes you a little bit more apprehensive to be out and about," said neighbor Chad Williamson.

Williamson lives feet away from where the 38-year-old mother was robbed of her Audi sport-utility vehicle.

"I got a call from a detective that asked me if I had any footage," he said.

He didn't, but another neighbor did. The offenders can be seen on surveillance footage shared with the victim who confirmed it is the pair that pointed a gun at her.

She told detectives the robbers looked as young as 10 years old.

"When I was a kid, I was ramping bicycles and playing flashlight tag," Williamson said.

Moments after walking by the camera, the carjackers come whizzing past in the stolen SUV, only slowing down after seeing a speed bump.

The car was recovered two days later a couple miles away abandoned in the middle of the street.

"Kids don't do violent crime like that unless they've been exposed to something that makes them behave that way," said Williamson.

"Instead of attacking the children, we need to attack the folks who are driving this," said Garien Gatewood with the Illinois Justice Project.

Gatewood is the program director for the Illinois Justice Project, a nonprofit working to reform the criminal justice system.

His hope is to address the real issues behind underage crime in Chicago.

"Because a 10, 11, 12, 13, 14-year-old is not walking into a gun store and buying guns," he said. "Who's giving them access to it?"

Instead of access to guns, Gatewood wants to see youth getting more access to other options.

"We have to give them an alternative," he said. "We have to create a positive outcome. Arresting our way out of these problems has not worked. We've had mass incarceration. Do these communities feel any safer?"

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