A Volusia County woman is facing charges after being accused of encouraging her three sons target a homeless man during a BB gun drive-by.
Amina El-Zayat, 36, of DeLand, was with her three sons in a black SUV out to “scare” homeless people and “bums” away from her car wash, a DeLand police report said.
El-Zayat told officers that her family had been dealing with homeless people digging through trash cans and dust collectors at her Woodland Boulevard business, the report said.
Tired of cleaning up the mess every morning, El-Zayat said one of her sons “told her they could shoot at the people with their air soft guns,” the report said.
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Police said El-Zayat followed the victim in her car, while her children fired out the windows.
The homeless victim of the shooting, Travis Martin, 35, told police that he was shot by the boys at about 1:16 a.m. Sunday, but didn’t want to press charges.
“He didn’t want to do anything about it at the time and only wanted police to know,” the report said.
About 20 minutes later, Martin called police again and said the SUV had returned and the occupants were shooting and cursing at him, officers said.
When an officer arrived, Martin flagged him down, yelling, “That’s them,” and pointed to the rear parking lot of a nearby Hungry Howie’s.
The officer stopped the SUV and had El-Zayat and her three boys get out, the report said.
Inside, the officer said he found two air soft rifles, one of which was fully automatic and could fire 15 pellets at a time.
The guns were replicas of M4 assault rifles and could have very easily been mistaken for real guns, the officer said.
“In fact, the only way you can typically tell a real-steel firearm from an air soft gun is the blazing orange tip and the BBs that fire when you pull the trigger,” he wrote in his report.
The suspect's husband is defending his wife and blaming his boys.
He claims his wife wanted to talk to the homeless man, who he said had been trespassing at her car wash.
Martin said he was searching for food inside a dumpster behind Sonny Shine Auto Wash when the incidents happened. .
“I wait until the night, because it's a little less embarrassing,” Martin said.
Martin said he searches for anything that will help him survive another night on the streets.
That night, Martin quickly realized he wasn't alone.
“They all started talking mean, vulgar things to me,” he said.
He said it scared him enough to cross the street to a gas station on the corner of on North Woodland Boulevard and Washington Avenue.
DeLand police said the boys followed, riding in an SUV driven by El-Zayat, while they fired BB guns out the back windows.
“They all popped their guns out and went right down at me,” Martin said.
El-Zayat’s husband said their sons started shooting before she could stop them.
“She did go there to talk to the guy, to tell him to stop coming there. Not to go shoot him. That's not what we do,” he said.
“Then why did she have your sons in the car at 1:30 in the morning with BB guns?” asked Channel 9 reporter Kimberly Eiten.
The police report said the boys shot at Martin twice and followed him around an intersection for about half an hour.
El-Zayat is out of jail and facing charges of aggravated battery, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and child neglect.
Because her sons are juveniles, it was unclear if they were also facing charges.