Authorities in Missouri have arrested a 17-year-old and two juvenile suspects after a cellphone video allegedly shows them bullying a boy and holding a firearm to his head.

According to WDAF, the alleged victim’s mother identified the seventh grader as on the autism spectrum. She said viewing the video of the assault left her in dismay.

“I was hurt,” Emily Bridges said. “I was angry. I was crying. I was mad. I was upset because he didn’t defend himself.”

She said the boy came home covered in bruises on Saturday and ultimately put the pieces together after a younger son revealed the incident recorded on video.

As the video reveals, the aggressors used derogatory language and racial slurs when addressing the boy, asking him at one point to kiss their feet.

Bridges said it was “sad that other kids think it’s OK to treat people that way.”

She went on criticize the initial response to her complaint.

“He just really said that they’re minors,” she said of the investigator’s reaction. “There’s not a lot that happens to them. They have to do community service. There’s not a lot.”

According to Bridges, police said she should just “keep Darren away from there and keep him at home.”

Unsatisfied with that response, she said she returned to talk to police the following day.

Noting that as a mother she feels “bad for them to an extent,” Bridges added that she does “think that all kids should suffer the consequences.”

She went on to say she wants to turn this frightening chapter into a positive.

“I hope the other kids see this and see that those actions and those behaviors are not OK,” Bridges said.

[Featured image: video screenshot]