By Stone Martindale Mar 5, 2007, 1:43 GMT
WATAUGA, Texas - Unimaginable news coming from the Lone Star state, as local Fort Worth Police have uncovered a shocking videotape found in a search for stolen goods showing two teenagers persuading a 2-year-old boy and his 5-year-old brother to smoke marijuana, reports CNN and various media sources.
Pot REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
The Texas courts have issued third-degree felony charges against the derelict teenagers.
"I have never seen anything like this quite so disturbing," said Bruce Ure, director of public safety for the Watauga Police Department. "Our children count on us to protect them; these individuals did everything but protect these children."
The Fort Worth Police Department had a search warrant to find stolen goods in the apartment of 17-year-old Demetris McCoy, the unemployed uncle of the two children, and 18-year-old Vanswan Polty, Ure said to CNN.
Stolen items recovered included camera equipment, Ure said. Upon looking at one of the tapes, investigators came across "a session where these two males were providing marijuana" to the youngsters, he said to CNN. "They were essentially trying to get them high, laughing. The children are stumbling, falling around."
Ure said "it appeared that the videotaped scene was not the boys' first such session," reported CNN.
The 2-year-old was holding a suspected marijuana cigarette "like he's done it before," Ure said. "He's inhaling."
The boys' mother is McCoy's sister, and told police she was "sleeping in the back bedroom during the incident."
No charges have been filed against her, or the cameraman yet, Ure said to CNN.
The children are now in custody of Child Protective Services, Ure said.
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