Four boys sexually assaulted 8-year-old Arizona girl

Four boys between the ages of 9 and 14 are accused of raping an eight year-old-girl.

Photo: Four boys sexually assaulted 8-year-old Arizona girl

Phoenix Police say the boys lured the girl into a storage unit at an apartment complex and then gang raped her Wednesday, reports KOLD-TV .

Officers say all four boys admitted to raping the girl.

Investigators said the boys lured the girl to an empty shed on July 16 under the pretense of offering her gum. The boys then held the girl down while they took turns raping her, police said.

"She was brutally sexually assaulted for a period of about 10 to 15 minutes," police Sgt. Andy Hill said.

The 14-year-old boy was charged Wednesday as an adult with two counts of sexual assault and kidnapping, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office said. He appeared in court Thursday and was being held without bond. He does not yet have a defense lawyer.

The other boys — ages 9, 10, and 13 — were charged as juveniles with sexual assault. The 10- and 13-year-old boys also were charged with kidnapping, the office said Thursday, The Associated Press reports.

The sister, who was not identified by name by the station, expressed mixed feelings about her sister's attack. "I came to her and said it's not good for you to be following guys because you are still little," the sister told KTVK. She also said that she wanted the suspects to be released from jail because "we are the same people."

"When she comes back I'm going to tell her don't ever do that again because all of us, we are the same family, we are from the same place. Now she is just bringing confusion among us. Now the other people, they don't want to see her," the sister told KTVK.

Tony Weedor, a Liberian who fled civil war with his family and now lives in the Denver, Colorado, area, told CNN that cultural aspects are deep in the case. In Liberia rape was not against the law until 2006, he said.