WARREN, Mich. (AP)— Police say two Detroit-area youngsters used a toy gun to rob five of their schoolmates of candy and chips.

The five victims were walking home earlier this week from Lincoln Elementary in Warren, north of Detroit, when one of the boys pulled the plastic gun on them, police said.

The suspects, ages 10 and 8, have been identified and police said they were making arrangements to have them brought in to be questioned, according to The Detroit News.

“I can honestly say I cannot ever remember anything like this happening with such young suspects,” Warren Detective Lt. Dan Beck told The Macomb Daily in Mount Clemens reported. “At least one of the victims told our officers he believed the gun was real.”

Police later determined the gun was a toy because the tip was described as orange. But Beck said the two young suspects could be charged with armed robbery because one of the children thought the gun was real. Beck said the victims ranged in age from 7 to 11.

(NNPA)—Long before news broke of the Penn State sex scandal, it has now been revealed that between 1971 and 1991, Donald Fitzpatrick, a former Boston Red Sox clubhouse manager, systematically abused and molested dozens of African-American boys in their hometown of Winter Haven, Florida, where the baseball team held their Spring training.

DONALD FITZPATRICK

“He grabbed me and told me to take my clothes off,” Leeronnie Ogletree, who said Fitzpatrick lured him into years of molestation when he was just 10, told thepostgame.com. “I’ll never forget him putting his mouth on my penis. I don’t mind telling it now because I’m over it. But that stands out. And I’ll never forget it.”

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP)—A tea party group in Kansas says its depiction of President Barack Obama as a skunk is satire, not racism as the leader of a civil rights group alleges.

Hutchinson-based Patriot Freedom Alliance says on its website that like the president, the skunk is “half black, half white, and almost everything it does stinks.”

The Hutchinson News (http://bit.ly/vT6l8u) reports local NAACP president Darrell Pope sees no humor in the depiction, which he calls a blatant statement of racism.

Local tea party supporter Chuck Sankey says former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been the target of worse insults than what’s on the website.

Patriot Freedom Alliance meets regularly and has hosted rallies in the Hutchinson Sports Arena.

by Christine Armario and Errin Haines

ATLANTA (AP)—Four Florida A&M University students were expelled Dec. 1 for their role in what is believed to be a hazing death of a marching band member, the latest blemish for a rich and cherished institution at historically Black colleges.

LAID TO REST—A horse drawn carriage carrying the casket of Florida A&M University band member Robert Champion is led by his fellow band members following his funeral service Nov. 30, in Decatur, Ga.

Hazing is part of the price band members pay at HBCUs to be part of a vaunted campus tradition that eclipses the prestige and popularity of the football team. Band members can endure anything from punching to paddling to being forced to drink copious amounts of water, all for a chance to perform in front of thousands of people at football games, parades and other high-profile events.