A 12-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the robbery of Juli Boeheim, the wife of Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim.
Authorities announced the arrest Thursday, saying the robbery occurred in a shopping mall parking lot in Syracuse, upstate New York.
On March 1, Boeheim, 55, was sitting in her car at the Destiny USA mall when the boy approached her with “an airsoft gun. [que lanza balines o balas de pintura],” grabbed her bag and phone before getting into a stolen car with three men and speeding off, Syracuse police said in a statement.
The car was discovered on the east side of town that same day.
The suspect is being held at the Hillbrook Detention Center. Police detailed that he was booked on suspicion of second-degree robbery, criminal possession of a weapon and grand theft.
Due to his young age, the boy has not been identified. It was not immediately clear Thursday if he has an attorney speaking on his behalf.
Boeheim, 77, has been the Syracuse team’s head coach since 1976.
“Of course it affected him. I mean this is not television, this is not movies, this is real life. Somebody puts a gun to his face,” Boeheim told ESPN Syracuse last week. “She’s handling it well, I mean better than she maybe would.”
“She’s a little shaken up, but I think she’s doing a lot better than could be expected,” he added.
“I think what helped her was that she was a kid” compared to if she had been “an older man,” Boeheim said, speaking to ESPN.
The Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation raises money for cancer research and vulnerable youth.
“His main thought was: ‘Let’s help this child.’ That’s what she does, we do, with our foundation,” Boeheim said. “You have to try to help these children. That was the first thing he said: ‘I feel like I want to help this child.’ But that’s the way she thinks. So is she. She tries to help people.”
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh told The Post-Standard this week that the mall where the robbery occurred has “a real problem” with gun violence.
“When you’re dealing with a facility that big, with that many people there, things are bound to happen,” Walsh said. “But having a number of weapons-related incidents in a relatively short period of time is very worrying. And it needs to be addressed.”
Boeheim has the second-most wins of any college basketball coach, with a record of over a thousand wins and under 500 losses.
Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils, who retired this month, tops the list.
Both of the Boeheims’ sons, Jimmy and Buddy, play for the Syracuse team.
