FLORIDA – A Volusia County woman is facing multiple charges after allegedly encouraging her juvenile sons to 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.

According to sources close to The AANews, Zayat is a former Dearborn resident. She moved to Florida with her husband and children around 2008. 

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.

Tired of dealing with the homeless people, El-Zayat directed her children to use their BB guns to shoot at them. 

Police said El-Zayat followed a homeless man 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,  but didn’t want to press charges.

Martin called police and said that people in an SUV were shooting and cursing at him.

An officer stopped the SUV and had El-Zayat and her three boys get out.

Inside the car, the officer 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 suspect’s husband defended his wife and blamed his sons for the incident.

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.

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.

Source: CBS Miami